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COPYRrCHT DEPOSIT. 



LEGENDS 

OF 

LOST RIVER VALLEY 



As Related by Joseph Pontus 



O » ) * » o 



Affangfed by William BrCunningham 



CHICAGO 

Champlin & Carlisle 



063 C^ 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Cofj'ies ReceivfC 

SEP 28 1903 

Copyngrtt tntry 

CLASS 0^ XXc No 

) ^ / ^ / 
^ COPY b. 



Copyright 1903 

BY 

William B. Cunningham 



*-,* c.c 



INTRODUCTORY. 



Recollecting the interest awakened in the minds 
of those who heard the words of Joseph Pontus, 
as spoken during the preparation of the memo- 
randa from which the following chapters were 
written, and ever recalling the request of my 
comrades and friends of long ago, I have sacredly 
preserved the original memoranda for many years 
past. 

If their use at this time serves to kindle in the 
mind and heart of the reader, even a trifling 
part of the interest created by their original de- 
livery, I will be amply repaid for time spent and 
work done, and shall enjoy the satisfaction of 
having, to some extent, at least, contributed to 
the entertainment and happiness of others. 

Robert Benton. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE. 

I Joseph Pontus 7 

II Lost River— The Great Springs 16 

III The W01.VES . 35 

IV Dave and Tige :..... 40 

V Fanny Dii^bro — The Indian Bride 43 

VI The Pigeons— Migration of Birds 49 

VII Indian Rewgion 56 

VIII The Garners — Cupid's Pranks 75 

IX Carrie LEE— The Bridge 83 

X The Houcks — The Reindeer 87 

XI The Great Toboggan 100 

XII Court Stories of Eari.y Times 109 

XIII Jim Cummings' Speech 133 

XIV Two Giri.s 152 

XV Jumping G1.0R y 156 

XVI Rebekah— "The CameI/S are Coming" 166 

XVII Orange County- -Its Peopi^e VkA ^^ 

XVIII Indiana— The Past— The Future 173 



Legends 



OF 



Lost River Valley 



CHAPTER I. 
Joseph Pontus. 

?ROM the center of the stream of Lost River 
the elevation is generally abrupt for some 
distance, forming well rounded hills, and back of 
these, the surface is level, or gently undulating, 
forming a plateau of marvellous beauty and rich- 
ness. On the western part of this plateau, 
under the protection of the mighty hills, whose 
forest-crowned tops seem to bank against the sky, 
was located the home of Joseph Pontus; here he 
had resided for more than half a century. His 
father was an adventurous fur trader, who often 
visited the Indian tribes, in the original fur age, 
when purchasing furs of Indians was the great 
western industry; his mother was an Indian girl, 
who was tall and lithe, and who, in beauty and 
elegance of manner, excelled any other woman in 
her tribe. Joe was reared among the rugged 
scenes and shared the stormy experiences of frontier 
life, from the Indian point of view, at the time 



8 I^KGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VALI^EY 

when the white man gradually, but certainly, step 
by step, drove the Indian toward the setting sun. 

As a lad, he was playful, full of bravery and 
determination, and in the midst of the disappoint- 
ments and the joys of his young life, the one 
emotion that asserted itself and controlled all 
others, was his unwavering fidelity to his mother. 
He clung to her with all the strength and devo- 
tion of his youthful heart, and when she was 
taken from him by death, his proud young spirit 
was utterly broken. He was silent and alone in 
the great world, so full of uncertaintres and dan- 
gers. But at length there appeared a rift in the 
cloud of sorrow pending over him, he gradual^ 
emerged from this great grief with no one to 
bestow parental affection upon him, and to know 
no master but the great spirit of the heavens, his 
mother's God, and the only God of his earlier 
years. 

He soon asserted his individualit}^ among his 
comrades. He was a physical stalwart even in the 
midst of a tribe of aborigines distinguished for its 
braves of gigantic size and courage. Yes, ''There 
were giants in the earth in those days," men of 
bravery and unwavering fidelity to the welfare of 
a race, by decree of the God of the nations, 
doomed to slow but certain extinction. Joe's 
shrewdness and intelligence made him an import- 
ant factor and adviser in matters of both local 




JOSEPH PONTUS 



JOSEPH PONTUS 9 

and of a public nature. "Wit will shine through 
the dark cadence of a rugged line." 

Years hurried by, the waves of time and war 
and death passed over the Indian people. The 
distinguished Tecumseh's brother, Elskwatawa, the 
prophet, the war leader of the tribe, was slain 
at Tippecanoe, which place is now known as 
"Battle Ground," on the Monon line, beside the 
Wabash Riv^er, in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, 
and his people — his nation — gradually faded away, 
as if dazzled and stupified by the effulgence of 
the Star of Empire on its western pilgrimage. 

The storms of many winters, the passing of 
many years, the anxieties and griefs that burdened 
his sympathetic heart, had made deep impressions 
on Joe's strength and appearance. His long, 
straight hair had assumed the whiteness of the 
snow. He remained near his old home^near the 
grave of his mother, and had grown to be a 
venerable father. Full of wisdom and experience, 
he was universally called by the name of Uncle 
Joe, which name, however, was used only as a 
term of endearment and as a recognition of the 
superior wisdom of this venerable but rough child 
of nature. 

Joe's people, the Shawnees, having slowly and 
solemnly passed on toward the great Pacific sea, he 
remained, quiet, solitary and alone. Like the stal- 
wart oak, having braved the storms that had pros- 



10 I^EGENDS OF IvOST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

trated its fellows, standing alone and solitary on the 
mountain, the sole reminder of its departed com- 
rades, so he remained the noble, picturesque and 
solitary reminder of a vanquished race. 

He had erected a comfortable house many 
years before, had planted gardens and cared for 
them after the manner of the white people, and 
gradually, and even unperceptibly to himself, had 
adopted the ways of living of his white neigh- 
bors, who always made him one of their number. 
The new learning and intelligence that seemed 
to spread over the west, like the air we breathe, 
like the light of the sun, or the rising of the 
morning, seemed to pronounce a benediction on 
his declining years. He was great in his influence, 
great in his wisdom, and great in the admiration 
and respect of the people; he accepted the blessings 
of civilization, and the white people were his 
brethren. The white residents were uncouth and 
unpolished, and in many respects, Joe was head 
and shoulders above them all. Perhaps it was 
true that no one knew as much as he, of every- 
thing and everybody, but, whether true or not, 
there was in the minds of the neighbors no doubt, 
that when desired information was not elsewhere 
obtainable, he was the unfailing source from which 
that commodity could be procured. Marvelous 
stories were told of him. Perhaps it was an in- 
spiration, perhaps oraculous, but whatever may be 



JOSEPH PONTUS 11 

the theory or explanation, it was a matter about 
which there was no dispute, that Uncle Joe was in 
some way gifted and full of knowledge in the 
matters of the graver sort. 

Four young men who had been visiting the 
Medicine Springs near by, moved by curiosity and 
interested by the marvelous stories related of Uncle 
Joe, concluded to go to his home to see the vener- 
able father — to hear his own words, to be pre- 
pared to form opinions, on all mooted points re- 
garding him, for themselves. Regarding this as a 
trip of pleasure, they ascended the hill in a rolic- 
some and aggressive mood and presented them- 
selves at his home. He was seated under a wide- 
spreading beech tree, which formed a veranda of 
leaves and shade in front of his house, smoking 
a long- stemmed pipe. As the four men came 
near the house they selected Mr. Robert Benton 
as their spokesman and imposed on him the duty 
of keeping memoranda of their interview. They 
approached with some degree of hesitation, but 
when near the house Uncle Joe arose with great 
dignity and received his visitors with such kindness 
that the faces of each of them seemed to say, 
"Sure enough, we have found the grand old man." 
Mr. Benton said, "We are told that you have re- 
sided here longer than any other person, and you 
know many things of people and facts concerning 
this community in the earlier years that are un- 



12 IvKGKNDS OF I^OST KIVER VAI.I.EY 

known to the great body of the inhabitants. Will 
you tell us something of your early life and 
something of the times and events through which 
you have passed?" 

With great deliberation, Uncle Joe filled his pipe 
afresh and said: "Gentlemen, pray be seated. I am 
glad to see you, and am happy to relate anything 
that I may know of interest to you. In my old 
days I sit here much of the time, thinking of 
the past and future; about the present I do not 
have much concern, as I have something to live 
on, in my simple way, and have learned that a 
home here on this pleasant table-land among these 
friendly trees, and their more friendly warbling in- 
habitants, away from the miasma of the swamps, 
away from the sewer and other gases of towns and 
cities, away from the contagious diseases that thrive, 
and grow, and spread, and kill in crowded locali- 
ties, away from the need of insurance (as there is 
no one living who would burn my home and I am 
not fool enough to burn it myself), is not a bad 
thing for an old man to possess, and affords in- 
numerable comforts and advantages. But, I beg 
pardon, gentlemen, you requested that I tell 
something of myself and of the events of olden 
times, and did not expect my mind to wander 
to the highest hill and take a crack at broad 
creation. 

"Now, as to myself. I lived with my mother 



JOSEPH PONTUS 13 

and was an Indian in my mode of life until I 
was fourteen years of age, when the Great Spirit 
took her away from me and I was a lonely 
orphan boy. By her death I suffered the greatest 
loss that a human being ever sustained; but her 
influence has ever overshadowed me. My heart 
still loves her, and my prayer has ever been 
that the Great Spirit will guide me to her when I 
cross the River, for I know her arms are ever out- 
stretched to receive me. When I was alone I played 
with the Indians, I lived with them, but I ever and 
earnestly wanted to be with the w^hite people. I 
never crossed or disagreed with my Indian friends, 
but helped them when I could, but when the proud 
Shawnees gradually left this country, I remained, 
and slowly emerged from the influence and associa- 
tions of the free and happy Indian life to the 
more elevating influences of the white men and 
women. I read much; I learned much; and 
while I never inclined to return to my life with 
the Indians, still I loved them, and the many 
hardships that befell them seemed ever to rest 
heavily upon my soul, and I have helped the 
poor and helpless among them all these years. 

An hundred times while hunting on the hill- 
tops, I have found myself gazing intently to the 
far west, childishly striving to penetrate the fogs 
of the Mississippi Valley, and imagining that away 
there, beside the western rivers — in the shades 



14 I^EGENDS OF I,OST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

of the Rockies, I could see my people in their 
struggle for existence — in their struggle for bread; 
then, the reverie dispelled, I would turn away — 
my heart full of sadness — my eyes full of tears; 
and in their discouragements and defeats, in their 
wanderings and their intervals of happiness, my 
prayers for their welfare have ever ascended to 
the Great Spirit — their ow^n God — their own pro- 
tecting Spirit. 

"My younger life was spent much in the woods 
with the dogs and gun. The gun is usually the 
delight of a boy, but this sensation was more 
delightful to me than to boys general!}', because I 
had two dogs, each of whom seemed to under- 
stand that the special duty of protecting their young 
master rested solely upon him, and the additional 
fact that upon the departure of the Indian hunters 
the timber wolves grew very plentiful and could 
easily be found by the dogs. In addition to this, 
there was in me an intense intoxication in going 
to the woods and returning with a wolf as a 
troph}^ of the hunt. That I was elated over my 
success in hunting, is .not only true, but I fear 
that I sometimes permitted the spirit of triumph 
and exaltation to exceed the bounds of discretion. 
The truth was that I could go into the haunts 
of the wolves in a sense of security, because I 
knew those dogs would defend me as long as life 
remained in them. In my long life, I have never 



JOSEPH PONTUS IS 

had more courageous and faithful friends. When 
I am not hunting with the dogs, I remain at home 
and read a great deal and write to my Indian 
friends. I like books and keep many of them 
here on these shelves. While thus spending a day 
at home, I raised the window in the morning to 
let the fresh air in, and at noon I sat on the porch 
watching the men haul grain from the fields, and 
as the sun sank behind the western hills, I sat 
down at my table and wrote. 

"THE* WHOLE DAY. 

"Raise hig-h the eastern windows, 

All hail the coming" day, 
Drink full the morning- freshness, 

Gain life and health for aye. 

"Rejoice in day's higfh noon time, 

It's life and strength to all, 
Rejoice in heaven's sweet boon time, 

Earth's children — g-reat and small. 

"Fare thee well, thou sinking- sun. 

Night's shadows o'er thee creep, 
Inviting nature's common rest. 

Heaven's gift to mankind — sleep." 



16 . I^KGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 



CHAPTER II, 
Lost River 

Mr. Benton: "But, Mr. Pontus, we have heard so 
many speak of Lost River and have heard stories 
that sound queer to us, now what are we to un- 
derstand about Lost River? Is there a river? Was 
it in fact lost, and how, and when, and where? If 
lost was it ever found?" 

Mr. Pontus: "Gentlemen, Lost River is a reality 
and one of those geological freaks of nature, if 
I may use such a term, that is not easily explained. 
The facts are, plainly speaking, that a considerable 
stream whose waters are gathered in the northeastern 
part of the county flows in a southerly direction, 
and when it reaches a point south-east of Orleans, 
it finds a low, open piece of ground where it spreads 
out for a considerable distance after the fashion of 
a little lake, or perhaps a large pond, which is 
fringed with rough vegetable life, that finds nourish- 
ment in the low ground, and somehow — that is 
not perceptible to a casual observer — it sinks and 
gets out of the way, graduall3% but completely, out of 
the sight. It has found an opening that enables it 
to go somewhere and not return to the surface in 
that particular neighborhood; so that the river is lost. 
It has disappeared in an unknown way, has found 
a course of its own without consulting the wishes, 
or catering to the curiosity of the inhabitants. 



I,OST RIVER 17 

"Now that is all it seems to do. You can not 
see it rush precipitately over a fall; you can not see 
it form a great whirlpool in which logs and debris 
keep whirling about and then make a mad rush 
down the center, reminding you of a diminutive 
maelstrom; you can not observe the exact point 
where the waters of Lost River make their descent. 
No, you stand there and look at the water as it 
spreads out before you, with weeds about the 
edges, with a quiet surface on the stream, with sticks 
of wood lying lazily on the surface of rather muddy 
water, and you likely see a squad of wild ducks 
'summer resorting' on the pond, and that is all. 
But when we turn our eyes beyond the water, you 
see a distinct channel, say sixty feet wide, and from 
four to ten feet deep, leading away off before you. 
You follow the channel and find it distinct and well 
defined, and you then know that water, at one 
time, filled that now vacant river bed. Water fowl 
no doubt, loved that quiet, shady stream and loved 
to gather under the low branches of the over- 
hanging trees and enjoy the shade, the coolness 
and strength arising from the clear, running water, 
and if there you may have heard the merry 
twittering, and even the louder bird-song notes, ring- 
ing out upon the morning air in such variety and 
volume as to render the scene unique and enjoyable. 
You can easily imagine light-running canoes gliding 
up and down the stream bearing pretty Indian girls 



18 IvEGKNDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI.I.KY 

on a visit to their neighbors. But, of course, I 
never saw these pleasant scenes, nor heard these 
cheery bird-songs, nor did I ever see those Indian 
girls; nor can I testify, from actual observation, that 
they were pretty, but when we can have things as 
we wish, when we are to have canoes, they can just 
as well be light and gliding as ordinary mud scows; 
the bird-songs might as well be clear, sweet and 
cheery as like the dull thug of the bull-frog; and as to 
those Indian girls, who would be willing to rave about 
untidy girls when we can as well imagine them 
to be artistic and pretty ones. I hope this senti- 
ment will meet with the approval of all present." 

Mr. Benton: "Yes, Mr. Pontus, it is agreed 
that those girls, if there were any, who rode in 
those canoes, if there were any canoes, were all 
pretty, with peach-blow cheeks, cherry lips, pearly 
teeth, with wild roses in their hair, and that they 
were singing the prettiest Indian love songs as 
they glided down that river bed now dryer than a 
horn." 

Mr. Pontus: "That important point being 
definitely and satisfactorily settled, we will look 
up the channel of that river again or it will be 
lost as well as the river. This channel leads off 
toward the northwest and is usually easil}^ fol- 
lowed; but at points in the valley where the waters 
frequently rise and run sluggishly through the river 
bed, the channel is gradually being filled up and 



I^OST RIVER 19 

the banks gradually washed away; and these in- 
fluences acting together have the effect of destroy- 
ing the distinctness of the channel in many places. 
In can not be absolutely proven that the waters 
that disappeared in the pond aforesaid, ever again 
appear on the surface of the earth, but about 
ten or eleven miles distant from the point where 
the river disappears, where the little town of 
Orangeville is now located, a peculiar scene attracts 
attention. A great spring rushes from under the 
hill. A veritable river bursts from the hillside 
and flows away toward the ravine below. This 
affords the water supply for the whole town. 
The people on the hill above the spring have 
wires stretched from their homes to the spring, 
and on these wires buckets are hung on pulleys; 
they are run down to the spring, by their own 
weight, and when full are drawn up by a wind- 
lass; so the spring is being utilized by all the 
people of the town. Whence came these waters? 
Why is it that the channel of a river leads 
towards this great spring? What became of Lost 
River? Have its waters been hemmed in, in a 
great reservoir for ages, and where? What in- 
fluences furnish the waters of this unusual foun- 
tain? Now consider these facts, viz: 

''First. That a river without doubt, in the long 
ago, ran through that old river bed. 

"Second. There is no other river near that 
could have run there but Lost River. 



20 I^EGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 

"Third. During the unusual freshets, when Lost 
River is very full, the water is forced up through 
the rocks near this river bed, miles distant from 
where the river disappears, and spreads over the 
land. 

''Fourth. The abandoned river bed leads the 
way from the pond where the river disappeared 
towards the great spring that comes so unex- 
pectedly from the hillside under the town. 

"Fifth. The size of the river as compared with 
the volume of water in the spring, indicates that 
it is the same. 

''Sixth. What becomes of the waters of Lost 
River which, during freshets, swell and rage and 
rush in great volume to some outlet, if they do not 
find their way to this spring? 

"Seventh. Although the county abounds in many 
noted springs, many of them large, many of them 
what is known among the Indians as Medicine 
Springs, of great strength and beauty, as those 
of French Lick and West Baden, yet no one of 
them approaches m the volume of the water the 
great spring at Orangeville. 

"These circumstances almost unerringly show 
that the same river that disappeared near Orleans 
and Paola is the same that now rushes with 
hurry and bustle from under the hill and chases 
on until it is lost in the south fork of the White 
River, thence to the Wabash — to the Ohio — to 



I^OST RIVER 21 

the Mississippi and the sea. For these reasons, 
the great spring is said to be the rise of Lost 
River and these reasons are regarded as satis- 
factory to the residents generally, and geologists 
and others who are versed in the knovs^ledge of 
the geological formations of Southern Indiana allege 
nothing that is inconsistent with this view. It is, 
therefore, concluded that Lost River has been 
found. 

''The theory and explanation is, that that portion 
of the country is built upon great rocks; that 
the rocks have openings between them, and that 
one of these openings happened to be at the point 
where the river disappeared and that the water 
flows down and through and between the rocks 
and follows one or many subterranean water-ways 
until it is liberated from prison by bursting from 
under the hill in the great spring at Orangeville. 

"Many stories are related of Lost River. 
It seems to have been a theme prolific of 
'yarns' and stories of the shady sort. One 
story was that about a hundred fish, called 
Croppies, that were never known to inhabit 
Lost River, were liberated in the waters of Lost 
River where it descends into the unknown, and 
a net was set below the big spring at Orange- 
ville and many of these fish were shortly there- 
after caught in the net. Another story was that 
an Indian riding in a little canoe was caught in 



22 I^EGKNDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^IvEY 

the sinking water and carried down and found 
a cavern where he was safe, but could not get 
out, and his friends tied food to a board and sent 
it into the river and kept him ahve, until they 
released him, a week later. Again it was said 
that a man who lived near the river killed his 
wife and the mob undertook to lynch him and 
that he, being well acquainted with the currents 
of Lost River, rushed into the lake, dove into the 
water and was never heard of again. Another 
story was that a lot of corks were thrown into 
Lost River, near the point of its going down, 
and that these corks were soon after found bob- 
bing about in the spring where it bursts from 
under the hill near Orangeville. But I relate 
these stories with due consideration of the source 
whence they came and with such allowances and 
reservations as are proper when your friends relate 
what actually occurred when on their last fishing trip. 
"This section of the country Wcis generally 
heavily timbered, and the forests were so dense 
and the trees so tall that the ground, in the dis- 
tance, was entirely obscured. Great oaks, poplars, 
burr-oaks, hickory, beech and other varieties grew 
in profusion and of prodigious size; more especially 
were they large about the springs and rivers and 
in the lower grounds. About the great Lost River 
spring these trees seemed to struggle to rear their 
wide-spreading tops above their fellows, to wave 



I,OST RIVER 23 

and play in the stronger winds above the gen- 
eral herd of trees. After the Indians had been 
defeated at Tippecanoe, the government stationed 
soldiers here and there to keep watch on the In- 
dians and prevent another uprising. One company 
camped on the bluff east of Lost River Valley, 
and built a stockade of heavy logs, as a protec- 
tion. About this time, tw^o gentlemen came from 
the south to use the waters of the Medicine 
Springs near the head of the valley, and to hunt 
for the big game, bear, deer, wolves and other 
wild animals, as well as wild turkeys in the 
neighboring hills. In their trips over the hills 
they came upon the Lost River Spring, and so 
delighted were they with the water and the sur- 
rounding scenery that they built a fire and 
camped there for the night, leaving their friends 
to discuss the probability of their being devoured 
by the timber wolves, so plentiful at that time. 
During their stay they would many times visit the 
great spring, cook their dinners there and rest 
themselves and their hunting dogs after the chase. 
"As soon as the snows of the following winter 
had disappeared, one of the gentlemen came 
back, hired men and built two large log houses 
with great porches to each of them, and arranged 
everything for the convenience of two families, to 
arrive on the first of June for the summer. Each 
of the families had grown children and as the 



24 I.EGKNDS OF I,OST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

daughters were educated and accomplished and 
in the very prime of young womanhood, it was 
not surprising that they should create a stir, ap- 
proaching a sensation, in the neighborhood. It 
soon was 'the proper caper' to visit the new- 
comers at the spring. Mrs. Brown had the 
largest house in the neighborhood, and by general 
consent and her own inclination, the young people 
in the community would congregate at - Mrs. 
Brown's frequently to spend the evening and pass 
away the happy hours in the merry whirl of the 
genuine countr}^ dance — and between the dan- 
ces Jack Hedges, w'ho was a great expert, 
would entertain the party by an exhibit of his 
'single footer' accomplishments. What added zest 
and genuine enjoyment to these social gather- 
ings was the fact that Mrs. Brown w^as happy 
to be able to oblige her young friends with 
these gatherings and everybody knew that fact. 
"Captain Howard Payne was with his company 
and was part of the army which was temporarily^ 
quartered among the bluffs on the side of the 
valle3\ To satisfy his curiosity, and moved by 
the wonderful tales he had heard of the spring, 
he mounted his horse and galloped along the 
winding road through the forest, crossing ravines 
and roaring creeks until he dismounted at the 
Lost River Spring. He stood for some minutes 
gazing in surprise and astonishment at the scene 



LOST RIVER 25 

before him. It seemed that a small river was 
bursting from the hillside. The spring was cir- 
cular in form and about thirty feet in diameter. 
The water came with such force and profusion 
that it lashed the water from the other side of 
the spring and then rolled and tumbled toward 
the center in a noisy jumble, then hurried away 
toward the White River and was soon lost in the 
forest-shaded ravines aud gorges, on its way to 
the great Mississippi, and the sea. But the spell 
that controlled Captain Payne was now broken, for 
above the noise of the gurgling waters he heard 
the full, clear notes of a lady's voice, as sweet 
and free as the song of the wild birds of the 
mountain. By walking toward the other side of 
the spring, he saw a young lady resting on a 
rustic seat built on the roots of a great oak. 
Surprised, she arose quickly, her hat swinging by 
its ties in her hand and with wild flowers in her 
hair. The Captain lifted his soldier's hat in the 
severest soldierly manner and said ^Ah, Miss, good 
morning. I hope you will not consider me rude. 
1 am a stranger in the neighborhood and came 
to see the spring. Are you the nymph of the 
spring?', She came toward him, saying, 'Oh, no, 
Captain, I live for the summer just there, at that 
house on the hillside and come here mornings to 
read and rest where I can hear the music of these 
cheery waters. Here is a cup if you would like 



26 LEGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAIvIyEY 

to try the water; I imagine it is sweeter and 
clearer by this white rock,' and she filled the cup 
and handed it to him saying 'please excuse me, 
good morning.' This was accompanied by the 
most graceful little courtesy and she hurried along 
the path and soon disappeared in the vine-covered 
veranda of the summer house. The captain stood 
musing. 'What a lovely face — so expressive and 
sweet. Her voice so clear and joyous, and she 
so lithe, so tall, so graceful; and kind nature, so 
often partial, has united her powers with good 
health and sunshine to make her singularly at- 
tractive. 

"What though the sun with ardent frown 
Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown 

''Nevertheless she was altogether a beauty. She 
seemed to him like a wild flower of the mountain, 
the Goddess of the Spring. He adjnired the water, 
the tall trees, the great solitude of the surrounding 
forests. Trees of such marvelous growth and 
miles of them on every side; great high reaching 
oaks, and below the spring cypress trees of mam- 
moth growth rearing their foliage-crowned tops far 
above their comrades. Such a brotherhood of 
giants! God's own great trees, — planted and pruned 
by Him alone! Near the head of the spring, stood 
a stalwart oak, towering far above its brothers, — 
an acknowledged monarch in this home of giants. 

"The captain rode home in a thoughtful mood. 



I.OST RIVER 27 

The spring, the surrounding forest and all else 
were simply thrown aside and forgotten, in 
thoughts of that unknown one; that vision of 
beauty and loveliness that had in so short a 
time captivated his mind and enraptured his heart. 
That night he felt as if he must return the next 
day to the spring; such rudeness and impropriety, 
however, could not be tolerated, but how could 
he see her? He did not even know her name. 
He then recollected that he had been invited to 
attend a ball at Mrs. Brown's a few evenings hence, 
at which he had been told the beauty and cul- 
ture of the neighborhood would be assembled. 
Would the girl at the spring be there? The 
Captain had been urgently invited to attend the 
ball and did so. His tall and comely figure, and 
his faultless military uniform, gave him dash 
and almost princely bearing. Among the gentle- 
men in attendance no one presented a more 
noble and manly bearing than he. The Captain 
scrutinized the guests as they appeared with great 
eagerness until one particular guest came in. He 
was introduced by the hostess and secured her 
for several dances. He found her name to be 
Miss Elsie Argo. His hostess said to him that 
she hoped he would like her, 'as she is cer- 
tainly one of our prettiest girls, and is the 
acknowledged intellectual star of the vicinity.' 
Thrills, throbs and palpitations are tame words 



28 I^EGENDS OF I.OST KIVER VAI.I.KY 

to express the condition of the Captain's heart 
when he and Miss Argo for the first time, 
floated around the great ball-room. His heart 
was full. Full to the brim, and overflowing. 
He and his friend, Tom Blanchard, called at 
the spring the following day and spent an hour 
at the hill-side home. The Captain's heart throbbed 
with unbounded happiness. His mind was not 
in condition to recollect that, 

" 'Joy comes and g"oes, hope ebbs and flows like the wave.' 

"The next day. Captain Payne was chagrined 
to learn that the soldiers had been ordered to 
move at once, and all was hurry and bustle in 
camp. He sent 'Good-bye' to his friend through 
Mrs. Brown. They marched from their quarters, 
and as they left the place two ladies on horse- 
back, one on a magnificent pacing grey, dashed 
up to see the soldiers pass; Captain Payne soon 
recognized the one on the pacing grey as his 
friend from the spring, and lifted his hat repeat- 
edly and she waved her handkerchief as often 
in reply. When he had passed, the ladies dashed 
off and disappeared on the winding way toward 
the spring. 

"The Captain, alas for the weakness of 
human nature, involuntarily turned as if to go 
after them, and then turned manfully awa}' and 
kept step like a soldier. He was ordered to 
Northern Alabama and was marching toward the 



I,OST KIVER 29 

south, but his thoughts were ever turning to the 
spring; to the house on the hill-side; to the 
dance; but more particularly to the girl on the 
pacing grey. He felt that all these things were 
gone, but they still lingered in his mind. The 
darkness and quietude of the camp, as he rested 
on the ground at night, only added to the vivid- 
ness of his recollections of the Lost River Valley 
scenes. He said to his friend Tom, 'I suppose 
this is what it means to buffet the billows and 
brave the storms and squalls of life.' 

''Four months passed and they were pleasantly 
located in camp in Northern Alabama. Rest 
and leisure vividly recalled the past. He talked 
to his friend, Tom, of his girl and how he 
hoped, in some way, to meet her again. As 
weeks lagged by, he became still more unhappy. 
His state of mind will be better understood by 
the following letter: 

" 'My dear Miss Argo: 

I can not but wish that our acquaintance was 
such as to allow me to address you in terms 
more endearing, but while that is not my 
privilege, I still beg to say, that time and dis- 
tance has only strengthened my thoughts and 
regard for you. May I then tell you so? Will 
you regard the attentions of one whose heart 
hears but one song and that the singing of one, 
then unknown to me, at the spring? The one 
great hope that sustains me most is that I may 
in some place meet you when I am not under 
army orders, and not bound by duty and honor 



30 I.KGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VALI.EV 

to remain in camp. May I hope to hear from 
you, saying that you are not offended by my 
presuming to write you these faulty but candid 
words? Sincerely, 

Howard Payne.' 

The reply. 

" 'Capt. Howard Payne. 
My Dear Sir: 

I most thoroughly appreciate your kind letter 
of the 1 2th inst. and am honored to know that 
your sincerity moved you to write. You are 
entirely excusable in writing me and I am happy 
to know that one so brave and noble remembers 
me and entertains kind recollections of me, but 
Captain Payne, I regret to tell 3^ou that I am 
now so circumstanced that it would be improper 
to encourage you to write again. 

With kindest recollections, 

Elsie Argo.' 

"Upon receipt of this letter, Captain Payne 
called to his friend, 'Tom, you remember that 
girl who was introduced to us at the dance at 
Mrs. Brown's, well, Tom, I have been loving 
that girl ever since and now I have lost her. 
She is engaged. I know it. Read that letter. 
While I know I have lost her, still I am gratified 
to know that she has a heart to leave a poor 
fellow in the right way, but I will keep that 
letter. I know b}^ it that she was all that I 
ever thought her to be, the dearest, best girl on 
earth. Once I lived in contemplating glorious 
moons and gorgeous sunsets in the love of that 



LOST RIVEK 31 

dear girl, and now I can see before me but 
gray mornings and hopeless nights.' 

"A few months later, the Captain read the notice 
of the marriage of Miss Elsie Argo of Tennesee 
to Judge Manderson of Alabama, and he said to 
Tom, 'Yes, that is my girl. I knew by her 
letter that she was engaged. Now she is lost 
to me and that ends m}^ love exploits for life.' 
Tom replied, 'No, Captain, you will soon find 
another just as good.' But the Captain insisted 
that there was only one girl for him and she 
was that particular one from the spring. 

"The Indian troubles soon ended and Captain 
Payne settled near Birmingham and purchased a 
large coal field in the suburbs. Soon after a 
number of furnaces and factories and other large 
plants were established near his coal lands. He 
gave his attention entirely to business and in a 
few years, was a wealthy man. In the mean- 
time Judge and Mrs. Manderson had settled in 
a beautiful home in Sunny South Land and en- 
tered upon their married life, with all the surround- 
ings that make life enjoyable, but only to have 
their ideal life destroyed and utterly broken up, 
bringing upon Mrs. Manderson grief and sorrow 
sufficient to break a thousand hearts. Scarcely five 
years had passed when it was announced in the 
papers that Judge Manderson of Alabama was 
killed in a railroad wreck in Texas. Captain 



32 I^KGKNDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI,I.EY 

Payne attended the funeral of Judge Manderson but 
sat on the large veranda until Mrs. Manderson 
passed out to the carriage when he moved 
near enough to see her face among widow's 
weeds and widow's tears. He then turned away 
saying almost audibly, 'She never was so pretty as 
now.' 

"His state of mind during the six months 
following is unknown except what may be 
gathered from the following: 

" 'Mrs. Manderson. 
Dear Madam: — 

I will be in your city on Thursday, and if 
agreeable, it would afford me pleasure to call 
upon you. Will you grant me that happiness? 
I am presuming that you still remember me. 
Sincerely. 

Howard Payne.' 

"This letter brought the following reply: 

" 'Capt. Payne. 
My dear Sir: — 

Your letter was a surprise, as it was quite unex- 
pected but the surprise was a pleasant one. I do 
recollect you very well. I will be pleased to see you 
after three o'clock, Thursday afternoon, as I will be 
from home until that hour. Very truly, 

Mrs. Manderson.' 

"This is all that is known, except that Captain 
Payne was absent from his home 'on business' 
very frequently during the months following the 
above letters, and his friend Tom received a tele- 
gram from him requesting that he meet him in 



I,OST RIVER 



h 



Mobile at a given street number, as he desired to 
consult him upon an important matter. Tom, 
always ready to oblige the Captain, was on hand at 
the time stated, but was surprised to find the place 
of meeting to be a large and costly furnished private 
residence and that others were there before him. 
He was received and informed that the captain 
would see him soon. Then came the music, fol- 
lowed by the marriage of Captain Payne to Mrs. 
Manderson. At the proper time, Tom, with much 
gravity, inquired the nature of the business to be 
considered, that he was now ready. The Cap- 
tain said, 'Tom, I wanted to consult you as to 
my judgment in choosing a wife. I told you there 
was only one girl in all this world for me, and 
now Tom, that girl is my wife and I am the hap- 
piest man in Alabama.' Tom replied, 'Well, Cap- 
tain, 3^ou want my opinion on this matter. I will 
say that I always asserted that I would never 
marry, but. Captain, on the square, if I could find 
such a wife as you have, I'd get married without 
hesitation, I like her — I approve your judgment. 
God bless you and Mrs. Payne.' 

"The newly married pair took the train for the 
Lost River Spring. They arrived in the morning - 
when the trees were budding and spring flowers 
on every side, and as they approached the spring 
their hearts throbbed with a new happiness. The 
laughing waters rushed to meet them — the birds' 



34 I.EGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAIyl^EY 

songs grew sweeter tq greet them. They came 
like children long absent, returning to the home 
and hearthstone from which they sprang. The 
Captain dipped water from near the great white 
rock and handed it to his wife saying. 'Dear, I 
imagine the water is sweeter and clearer by this 
white rock.' They both drank from the cup and 
then sat down on the rustic seat by the great 
oak, where he first saw Miss Argo years before. 
The quiet of the place was unbroken, except by 
the rustle of the foliage in the tree tops so far 
above them, the notes of wild birds in the trees 
and the music of the waters they both loved so 
well; and there, in the glow of health and love 
and life and hope, they recalled the past, re- 
newed their sacred pledges and commenced life 
anew." 



THK WOI.VES 35 

CHAPTER III. 
The Wolves. 

Mr. Benton: "This must have been a wild coun- 
try in the early times and I suppose you had 
bears and wolves here then." 

Mr. Pontus: -'Yes. In that ravine yonder the 
wolves were plentiful, and they were such fearless 
night prowlers that we had to act on the offen- 
sive to protect our stock from their attacks. My 
two sturdy dogs were both wolf hunters and wolf 
fighters. When either of them closed in combat 
with a large timber wolf, there was no hesitation 
or parleying, but it was a hand to hand, or rather 
a teeth to teeth wager of battle; Greek had met 
Greek in a final struggle for victory or death. In 
the midst of the fights, as I could not shoot, as 
opportunity presented I would rush up and kill 
the wolf with a blow with my hatchet. It was 
in fact a very small ax with a very sharp blade 
and pole or hammer. It had a handle about four 
feet long and I used it when in such close quar- 
ters that I could not use the gun. The dogs had 
great experience and tact. I have often sent them 
ahead and they would crawl through the brush 
for a long distance to surprise the wolves and en- 
gage them in battle. Just before they would 
charge, they never failed to look back, to see if I 



36 I.EGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

was coming, and was ready to assist in the strug- 
gle. By this look I knew the supreme moment 
had arrived, and would immediately dash forward. 
The chances were that my strongest dog, Tige, 
would have hold about the throat of his antag- 
onist, which hold was there to stay, and I have 
repeatedly killed the wolf with the hammer of 
my hatchet by a single blow. Here on the wall 
is the weapon mentioned. It has been my sole 
reliance in many a struggle. I have had the 
blade renewed several times. 

'•Sometimes I have had a piece of fresh meat 
trailed on the ground in a long circuit, and then 
securely tied to a small tree, while I would hide 
in some secure place, and as soon as the wolves 
would catch the trail they would immediately fol- 
low it, and on finding the meat they would in- 
variably commence fighting over their find, when 
I would shoot one at least, and have shot two of 
them before they could get away. I would cure 
and tan the skins, as 1 learned to do in my 
early hunting life with the Indians. Here are wolf 
skins that I tanned. I always take the greatest 
care of them. They are all trophies of the chase. 
In the winter they are a great comfort to me. 

"One day while hunting we found a distinct 
bear track in the snow, which my friend and I 
followed half a day, when we observed tobacco 
stain on the snow, and concluded that a bear had 




''defending himseIvF by swinging his gun to ward off the 
hungry, howi^ing, ravenous devii^s" 



THE WOLVKS 37 

too much sense to chew tobacco, and returned 
home to learn that one of the neighbors had skin- 
ned the feet of a grizzly bear and made a kind 
of moccasins of the skin, which accounted for the 
tracks, so that the tracks were genuine, but the 
animal making them was a fraud. Not a wolf 
in sheep's clothing, nor an ass in a lion's skin, but 
a man parading in the shoes of a bear. 

''One day when I was in the field near the 
ravine yonder with Tige at my heels I heard 
an unusual noise in the hollow beyond and ran 
there, hatchet in hand, to learn the cause of the 
commotion. 1 found my neighbor, Markell, sur- 
rounded by a pack' of timber wolves and defending 
himself by swinging his gun in front, to ward off 
the hungry, howling, snapping, ravenous devils. I 
had time only to rush to him to save his life. 
The next moment Markell, myself and the dog 
were in the center and seven timber wolves in a 
circle round us. The desperate, snarling creatures 
made continual efforts to get hold of us. Markell 
had lost his nerve and was unable to reload his 
gun, so that the dog, the hatchet and my good 
right arm constituted the amount and extent of 
our munitions of war. Again and again I would 
hit one of the wolves and they would fall back 
momentarily and then renew the attack. I kept 
the dog at my feet as a defense, fearing to 
let him fight one, as the others would take 



38 LEGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VALI.EY 

part and kill him. For half an hour that strug- 
gle was continued. For half an hour I stood 
between that man and death. A hundred times 
I strained every nerve to lay the leaders low. 
At length I hit the most venturous one among 
them and he fell prostrate, and as I did so his 
mate tore my left arm. The dog took him by 
the throat. And here a moment's delay would 
have resulted in certain death to both of us, as 
the wolves rushed in. I sprang instantly for- 
ward and hit the wolf in the back of the head 
and then finished both of the infuriated beasts, 
and the others, seeing their leaders had fallen, 
instantly fled through the underbrush, leaving us 
in possession of the battle-ground. We bound 
up my arm, saved the skins of the slain wolves, 
to be tanned, and for weeks thereafter I bathed 
my arm in water from the medicine springs 
(now West Baden). Going below the springs, 1 
lay down and let the sulphur water run over 
my arm. This water cleansed the wound, re- 
duced the inflammation and eliminated the danger 
of blood poisoning. I have known Indians in the 
olden time to come many miles to bathe their 
injuries in the sulphur water of these springs. My 
arm recovered, but here are the scars of that 
wolf's teeth, which scars I will carry to my grave. 
As I grew older I avoided the risks of such fights 
with the wolves, but for many years we were 



THK WOI^VKS 39 

compelled to fight for their extermination, as we 
were unable to raise stock; they would destroy 
the young calves, lambs and pigs, and they drove 
off other game; rabbits, turkeys, quail and other 
birds were kept away or made very scarce by 
the continual hunting of the wolves, so we had 
to fight them to protect our stock and ourselves, 
and the game we so dearly loved." 



40 IvEGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAIvLEY 



CHAPTER IV. 

Dave and Tige. 

Mr. Pontus: "I cannot take leave of the 
wolves w^ithout a brief mention of my dogs Dave 
and Tige. I purchased them when young, and 
they were raised and schooled and trained by 
me. In their puppy days they learned to go 
with me, and if any danger threatened they would 
stand by me and were ready to fight an3/thing 
that came near. Each of them inspired his mate 
with courage. They soon grew fearless, and both 
grew to be terrific combatants. The}^ feared no 
wolf on earth, and when they had become ex- 
perienced in hunting them they sought out their 
enemy with great tact and adroitness. Their 
courage, strength and experience combined to 
make them terrific in an encounter. When a pack 
of timber wolves would charge upon them, they 
found that there was 'a lion in the way.' Tige 
would stand by me, looking the embodiment of 
infuriated vengence until the danger was im- 
minent and impending, when he would charge 
with such velocity and violence that he rarely 
failed to get the advantage of the enemy in his 
first charge. Dave was always with him, assist- 
ing in the fight or keeping the other wolves at 
bay. Either of them would readily die at my 



DAVE AND TIGE 41 

feet in my defense. Neither of them ever 
showed the white feather one moment in their 
lives. Then do you wonder that I loved them? 
Do you wonder that I like to tell of my faithful 
friends? It was a sad day for me when Tige 
died, and I had him buried in the woods that he 
loved so well, while Dave stood by. The next 
morning I called Dave and he did not come. I 
looked here and there for him and then I went to 
Tige's grave, and there was old Dave lying with 
his head on his paws, at the grave of his friend. 
I do not know whether he was shedding tears 
or not, but he did not need to, as I shed tears 
enough for both him and myself, and I wept 
there with poor broken-hearted Dave, and oh, 
such tears, and such sorrow, for poor Tige, who 
had sprang into the jaws of death an hundred 
times to save us. Yes, I could weep now for 
him, and am not ashamed to tell it. 

'''' Reqiiiescat in pace my dear and faithful friend. 

"But it is said he was only a dog. 
'Only a dog-.' You wonder why 
I grieve so much to see him die. 

Ah, if you knew 
How true a friend he was to me 

When friends were few! 

"Only a dog- — a beast, you sneer 
Not worthy of a sig"h or tear. 

Speak not to me 
Such falsehood of my poor, dumb friend 
While I have lang-uag^e to defend 

His memory. 



42 I^KGENDS OF LOST RIVKR VAI,I,EY 



"Throug-h ups and downs, through thick and thin 
My boon companion he has been; 

For years and years. 
He journeyed with me many miles, 
I gave him frowns, I gave him smiles 

And now sad tears. 

"Ah, go away and let me cry. 
For now you know the reason why 

I loved him so; 
Leave me alone to close his eyes 
That looked so watchful and so wise 

Trying to know. 

"At garden gate or open door 
You'll run to welcome me no more 

My dear old friend; 
You were so good, so kind, so true, 
I question now looking down at you 

Is this the end? 

"Is there for you no 'other side,' 
No home beyond death's chilly tide 

And heavy fog; 
Where meekness and fidelity 
Will meet reward although you be 

Only a dog. 

"Old Tige had love and faith and joj'. 
As much as any baby boy — 

Intelligence — 
Could smell, see, hear and suffer pain, 
What makes a soul if these in vain. 

When I go hence, 

** 'Tis my belief my dog will be 

Among the first to welcome me, 
Believing that 

I keep his collar and his strap. 

We will meet there and no mishap; 
So good by, Tige, 
Dear, faithful Tige." 



FANNY DII^BRO 43 

CHAPTER V. 
Fanny Dilbro. 

Mr. Benton: "How did the Indians and white 
people get along? Did they associate to any 
extent?" 

Mr. Pontus: "During the early times when the 
Shawnees lived in this section in large numbers, 
there was a great deal of business intercourse 
between the Indians and their white neighbors, 
and this acquaintance resulted in friendly relations 
and many marriages between them. Scarcely any 
of the Indian men married white wives, but it was 
not uncommon for white men to marry Indian girls. 

"This resulted in quite a number of half-breeds 
scattered here and there throughout the territory. 
A white man by the name of Dilbro married one 
of the half-breed Indian girls, who was handsome, 
quite well educated, and a most excellent woman. 

"They had three daughters, who were well edu- 
cated, intelligent, and were everywhere respected, 
especially for their good sense and charitable work. 
These ladies were authority on language at the 
county seat, and when cases were tried, in which 
the parties or witnesses were Indians, they were 
repeatedly called into court as interpreters, to 
translate the Indian language into English, and 
being in court so frequentl}' they became well 



44 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I.EY 

known and honored everywhere. Especially were 
they loved by the Indians and regarded as their 
friends. 

"The two older girls married the most respected 
and well-to-do men in the community and were 
leaders in usefulness as well as in social events. 

"The younger sister seemed to have been par- 
ticularly favored by nature. She had good health, 
beauty and general accomplishments, and was the 
acknowledged leader in social functions. When the 
Shawnees left this country for the West some of 
the tribe were compelled to remain, on account 
of sickness and old age, and many of them en- 
joyed such pleasant surroundings that they were 
loth to change their present location for one utterly 
unknown to them. They did not know the nature 
of their prospective surroundings, in the unknown 
country whither their people were going. Quite 
a number of people were related by marriage to 
the white people and were rather proud than 
otherwise of their white friends. So that, every- 
thing considered, there was quite a remnant of 
the tribe that remained here even by choice. 

"Some years later the Chief of the Shawnees, in 
the Sciota Valley, in the Indian Territory, came 
here to look after this remnant of his people 
and to induce them to join their friends on the 
reservation. 

"He found a home while here at Mr. Diibro's 



FANNY DIIvBRO 45 

house, and as he was young, tall, very richly 
dressed, and a man of great ability and distinction, 
he talked English fluently and was a man of fine 
address, and naturally was interesting to the young 
lady of the house, Miss Fanny Dilbro. He re- 
mained three weeks and visited the Indians here 
and then left again to join his own people. He 
corresponded with Miss Dilbro, and some months 
later returned and took her away as his wife, to 
be Queen of his tribe. Miss Dilbro announced 
two weeks before her marriage that she was going 
to marry the Chief and go away. 

"The departure of such a lovely girl under the 
circumstances created the most profound sensation 
in the community. Her father was very indulgent, 
and spared no time or money to make her de- 
parture happ3' and even distinguished. The new 
bride of the Chief proved to be a blessing to the 
whole tribe. She assisted in establishing schools 
everywhere throughout the tribe. She was a 
friend to the churches and assisted various denomi- 
nations to open Sunday schools within the Shawnee 
country. She assisted the Chief in having a paper 
started as a medium of communication between the 
scattered families. And the Chief, who was always 
inclined to adopt measures to elevate and educate 
his people, found in her not only a wife in his 
household, but a most competent and valuable 
adviser in all matters relating to the betterment of 



46 IvEGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^LEY 

his people. The people here never forgot the 
Indian bride. They never would admit that she 
was not of their own kith and kin, but claimed 
her as their own friend and as an angel on a visit 
to a people who appreciated her and considered 
her a blessing to them all. She corresponded with 
her people here, and they were proud to tell of 
her doings in the far west. Her father was my 
friend, and she always called me "Uncle Joe," and 
I knew her well from childhood. I had a letter 
from her which I always preserved with the great- 
est care, and as it will be interesting, I will give 
it here: 

" 'Mr. Joseph Pontus. 
Dear "Uncle Joe": — 

I wish many times that 1 could spend a whole 
week telling you how I spend my lime and how I 
find happiness in the performance of my many 
duties. My associations, in my youth, with intel- 
ligent people, the educational advantages that my 
father afforded me, and my love for the church 
and Sunday school seemed to be the guiding 
star and the inspiration of my life here. 

I have established many schools, I have often 
visited those already in existence, going to every 
one of them at least once a year. My husband 
is always most kind and good to me. He goes 
with me to visit our own people and also the 
neighboring tribes, and he always speaks at the 
feasis and out-door gatherings. He tells them to 
raise more corn, wheat and oats. He tells them 
to feed their horses better, and he praises their 
fat horses whenever he sees one. He spent 
much of his own money to improve their stock. 
He tells them he wants to see big gardens, big 



FANNY DILBRO 47 

truck patches and big fields of grain, and always 
tells them that he will come soon again and will 
expect great improvement. He urges them to 
depend on themselves to provide for their families, 
and he wants them to be a strong, sober, industrious 
and independent people. No chief is more liked 
by the surrounding tribes than he, nor is any 
chief loved more in his own home than he. When 
I attend my husband on his visits, I encourage 
the women, and no word I ever utter falls un- 
heard and no kind act is unappreciated by these 
humble women. 

I speak to them (and, you recollect, I used to 
sing) and sing to them, and nothing has filled my 
heart with such happiness as to see how their 
houses are put in order, and what efforts both 
teachers and pupils make to have everything 
pleasant for my visits. I wish you could go one 
day with me on my school, church and social 
trips, and your heart would throb with delight 
to see the amount of happiness that one little 
woman can give to the most appreciative children 
on earth — and I do not claim any credit, because it 
does seem to me that the overruling and universal 
Father of us all, has lifted me up and placed me 
at His chosen post of duty and told me what to 
do from day to da}'. To illustrate: When I go 
out among my people all eyes are upon me, and 
especially those of the young women. They 
watch how I walk, how I speak, how I dress, 
how I laugh and how I sing and how I pray; 
and knowing this, and feeling that one silly act 
may be copied, and how one improper word may 
be repeated, it requires no reasoning and con- 
sideration to know my duty. It is my great 
pleasure to be simple in dress, discreet in my 
words, and correct in my acts. You can never 
measure the responsibility that rests on me. You 
can never know the pleasure it gives me to Hft 
my people up to a full reahzation of the bless- 



48 IvEGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

ings of liberty, education and Christianity. And 
oh, how unworthy am I, yet, the happiness that 
their welfare, their improvement, their apprecia- 
tion and devotion brings to my heart can never be 
known this side of heaven. 

Many ties bind me to the Shawnees. I be- 
lieve I was sent here to help them. Their love 
for me and unwavering faith in me, gives me 
influence and control over them, to make them 
do right. I speak their language as well as our 
own, and can make known their wants according 
to their true merits. I am related to them by 
blood and have made them my people by adop- 
tion. I would not be loyal to my husband if I 
did not help his people* I would be unworthy 
of my patriotic father if I did not teach them 
loyalty to our country. I would not be true to 
my good mother if I did not be a mother to 
the sick and helpless about me and help to "wipe 
sorrows' tears away.'" 

You must come to visit me, you must come. 
Good-by — do not forget me. God bless you, dear 
Uncle Joe. Fanny.' 

''I visited the Shawnees in the reservation once, 
but that was before Miss Dilbro left this countr}-, 
but now since she is there, and so circumstanced 
that she will make my visit pleasant, I will go 
again to visit the tribe. You see, my mother's 
uncles and other relatives are located there and 
I will be at home among them. 

"The valley of the Sciota River, in which they 
are located, is rich, and the tribe ought to prosper 
there and, as I understand, do prosper. At all 
events, they are good people and ought to suc- 
ceed, especially as the chief of the tribe is a 
most excellent man." 



THE PIGEONS 49 



CHAPTER VI. 
The Pigeons. 

Mr. Benton: "Excuse me, but what kind of 
birds are those coming 'round the hill-top yonder? 
they seem to be fast flyers." 

Mr. Pontus: ''Why, those are wild pigeons; 
they are usually sailing about the hill-tops in great 
numbers. They like to frequent the forests of tall 
trees such as you see there. They are very pretty 
birds, and are fine food. I was accustomed to 
shoot them and many times have enjoyed pigeon 
pot-pie, but lately I do not like to kill them. 
Much shooting drives them off and I would be 
lonesome if I could not see them. So I entirely 
quit killing them and have begged my .neighbors 
not to disturb them. We do not see them in 
the winter; they seek a more congenial climate, 
but always return here. So with many of my 
feathery friends, they come and go and I await 
their return and welcome them by scattering crums 
and grain about, so they will like to come and 
like to stay. The}^ are friendly, beautiful and 
enjoyable associates." 

Mr. Benton: "The annual migration of birds 
and how they know where to go has always been 
a matter of thought with me; and especially how 
the homing pigeons know how to return to their 



50 LEGENDS OF I.OST KIVEK VALI.EY 

homes, when taken so far away, has caused me 
much thought and consideration. May I ask what 
are your ideas on that subject?" 

Mr. Pontus: "Of course, that is one of the 
questions that can not be answered by facts and 
figures, but I can give you my thoughts on that 
subject without any trouble or delay. 

"Birds and animals have an instinct or knowl- 
edge of location, distance and direction, the de- 
gree of that knowledge depending upon the 
nature and habits of the species. Take a dog or 
a horse many miles from its usual haunts and 
it will find its way home, because the outdoor life, 
experience and habits of the horse and the dog 
are such as to inform them in regard to direc- 
tion and distance. This is true to a very limited 
degree in the lower order of animals. If you take 
a frog two miles from its native pond it can 
never find its way back, because its life and ex- 
perience is so circumstanced, so hemmed in, that 
knowledge of direction and distance is not essentiaj 
to its manner of life, but the animals and fowls 
of higher intelligence, and especially those whose 
mode of life requires them to travel about, have 
an extensive knowledge of location and direction 
when compared with that of the lower order of 
animals. 

" 'How instinct varies in the grov'lling" swine, 
Compared, half-reasoning elephant, with thine, 
'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier, 
Forever separate, j'et forever near.' 



THE PIGEONS 51 

"Birds generally quit their summer homes as soon 
as the storms of fall threaten, and spend their 
winters in a warmer climate, southward. Wild 
geese love the northern lakes and marshes, in the 
summer time, and rear their young there, but when 
approaching winter makes their homes uncomfort- 
able, and food scarce, they form themselves into a 
football 'V and immediately start southward to 
their winter resorts. 

"How do the birds know which way to goF 
How does the wild goose on the shores of 
Northern Superior know the way to the more 
sunny shores? They must naturally have that 
knowledge. Some say they know because their 
ancestors have gone that way each year, and the 
head center of the 'V is a gander selected as the 
leader, because he has been over that long route 
several times, but how did his ancestors first 
know of the warmer resorts, and how do birds 
generally know the exact locality of a climate to 
their liking? It seems clear that nature furnishes 
them with knowledge sufficient to guide them in 
these things, and it seems that the higher orders 
of the fowl kingdom and the higher orders of the 
animal kingdom are particularly gifted with such 
knowledge. The wren and the woodpecker, both 
birds of short flight, would likely know little of 
direction and distance, but the long flyers — the 
crane, the heron, the wild goose, the eagle — know 



52 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 

intuitively, or by experience, of distance, location 
and direction. 

"It is reasonable that birds accustomed to long 
flights, who are great travelers, should know 
where and how to go and how to return home 
again. 

"If you capture an American eagle on the 
Rocky Mountains and liberate him on the Alle- 
gheny Mountains, I have no doubt that the 
magnificent scenery of the Alleghenies and royal 
beauty of their wild ravines, fringed and inter- 
laced with ferns, would be a great disappoint- 
ment to him; that he w^ould soar away above 
it all, circle around a few times to get his bear- 
ings, and then strike for the fastnesses of his 
native Rockies, where jagged rocks 'the rat- 
tling crags among,' with their snow-capped tur- 
rets would afford his soul its wanted rest. 

"Thus with the carrier pigeon. Its species has 
always been selected as a carrier, because of its 
remarkable intelligence and its love of home. Its 
species has always had an opportunity for training 
and education in distance and direction. It is a 
long flyer, like the eagle and the wild goose, 
and surveys a long distance route as easily as 
the woodpecker or the wren would survey the 
space of a few thousand feet. 

"The ancestors of the pigeon were gifted by 
nature with this power. This gift has been en- 



THE PIGEONS 53 

larged and improved by experience and training, 
and has been transmitted to their progeny. These 
favorable conditions, encouraged and strengthened 
by early and continued training, necessarily makes 
the pigeons with brief experience acquainted with 
the topograph}^ of a state, as a horse or a dog 
is acquainted with the township in which he lives. 
Such pupils and such training affords the fine 
'homing pigeons' of to-day. 

"It is a fact that the pigeon famity has always 
been especially endowed with the faculty of know- 
ing where to go to a greater degree than ordi- 
nary birds. Why did not Noah send a yellow- 
hammer out of the ark to report the condition of 
the waters? He knew better. A dove was se- 
lected, because it was able to make a long flight, 
and it knew its way home again. In Turkey, 
where these birds are much used, ^nd are most 
reliable, they are carefully trained. They take a 
bird nine months old the distance of one-half mile, 
then gradually increase the distance and the tests 
until it learns the general lay of the land and 
water. It is then a reliable messenger. 

"It is said that a carrier pigeon was taken to 
a great height in a balloon and turned loose. It 
rose much higher and circled about, but returned 
to the balloon, finding nothing familiar to give it 
its bearings, indicating that some hint of the direc- 
tion was indispensible to it in determining the way. 



64 IvKGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

''When a carrier pigeon is liberated is goes up 
to a great height and circles around, takes the 
direction and goes home. It goes up and circles 
about until something indicates which way to go, 
so it has to make up its mind. If not, why does 
it not start at once? Why does it go high? Why 
does it circle about? 

"Intelligent birds may know much more as to 
the points of the compass than we are likely to 
suppose. They know the rising and setting of 
the sun better than man. They greet the rising 
of the morning with their cheery songs, and when 
they see the sun, like Phoebus Appollo, sinking 
into the sea surrounded with glory, they go to 
rest to await the re^:urn of the morning. The 
carrier pigeon may know the rising and setting 
of the sun better than many human beings. For 
example, if a pigeon, reared in New York, were 
liberated in Chicago in the early morning he 
would look to the rising sun and go; and if liber- 
ated in the evening it would glance at the setting 
sun and turn at once east, because it knows that 
the sun arose out of the great sea, and that its 
home is near that sea. When it has flown all 
night, and has overtopped the Allegheny moun- 
tains, and beheld the gray light of the morning 
break in the east, it knows that light comes over 
the sea, sees the slope of the whole country to- 
ward the ocean, and his breast heaves with recog- 



THE PIGEONS 55 

nition of his home-land, and new hope and re- 
newed strength bears up its tired wings. 

"The best 'homing' pigeons are the mothers 
who are taken away from their young, and who 
can say but that their mother love is so intense 
that it retains, in spite of distance and darkness, 
some memory of the direction back to its home 
and dear ones. 

"It may be that trees, rivers ' and other things 
speak in nature's language to birds. For instance: 
A farmer on the prairies of Illinois can give the 
points of a compass immediately by looking at 
the branches of a tree as certainly as by looking 
at the sun, as he knows the continual winds in- 
cline the branches to the northeast, and such things 
may serve as indices to intelligent birds. Consid- 
ering these things, the conclusion is reasonable 
that the pigeon, hke other birds of long flight, is 
gifted with a natural power to a marked degree 
to determine direction and location; that it has a 
keen, far extended eyesight; that these natural pow- 
ers aided by training and experience, detects famil- 
iar objects very far away; that the general con- 
tour of the country passes in panoramic views 
before its extended vision. 

"The sun, the mountains, the lakes, the fogs of 
the valley, the slope of the countr}^ or some com- 
bination of some of these are guide-posts to the 
carrier pigeon in its homeward flight." 



56 I^EGENDS OF I^OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Indian Religion. 

Mr. Benton: *'If not disagreeable to you we 
would like to know about the religion of the 
Indians, and, generally, what you think of re- 
ligious denominations and their creeds and 
doctrine." 

Mr. Pontus: ''I tell you candidly that I do 
not like so many different denominations and 
creeds. I do not regard it necessary to have so 
many sects and so much difference on trivial 
points. That there are so many sects shows 
them to be the work of man. There ought to be 
one great Christian church agreeing on the 
acknowledged essential belief of Christian faith, 
leaving all other matters to be non-essential and 
matters of personal preference and opinion. 

"The various denominations should not find fault 
with each other. I know a very zealous Baptist 
woman who says no one can ever get to heaven, 
unless they are immersed and put entirely under 
the water. She seems to believe that so much 
water will wash away sin. I believe in a form 
of baptism, but think that a few drops of water 
as good as a tank full, as water of itself does 
not eradicate sin. Tears of penitence form the 
only kind of water that will wash away the sin- 



THE INDIAN RKIylGION 57 

fulness of a wicked heart. A man who lived 
over there has been cruel to his wife and children 
for twent}' years and is altogether mean. You 
would not wash away that man's sins by drag- 
ging him up the Mississippi from New Orleans 
to St. Paul. 

"I do not find fault with any church and am 
thankful for what I receive, be it much or little. 
I am like the preacher who sent his hat all 
over the church for a collection and waited to 
give thanks for the money; when the hat came 
back there was nothing in it, and the preacher 
promptly returned thanks for getting his hat back 
again. 

"Nor do I know if it is best to mislead the 
minds of children into believing in Santa Claus, as 
the effect on their minds when they ascertain how^ 
they have been deceived for years may not be 
that of a simple joke, but may have the effect of 
destroying confidence in the word of their parents. 
For example, when Johnny was nine years old he 
said to his father and mother that they had made 
him believe that Santa Claus really existed, and 
had him writing to him for years, and now he 
learned that the whole story was false, and that 
now he supposed the story of Jesus was all false 
too, and that he would have to look that up 
now. That is, he lost confidence in their word. 
This reminds me of the old story shown in the 
follow^ing conversation: 



58 IvEGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAIvlVEY 

"Pat: 'Yes I believe the Bible and every- 
thing in it.' 

"John: 'Do you believe that Jesus v^^alked on 
the vvrater?' 

"Pat: 'Is that in the Bible?' 

"John: 'Yes.' 

"Pat: 'Then I believe it.' 

"John: 'Do you believe that the whale swal- 
lowed Jonah and he lived three days inside the 
whale?' 

"Pat: 'Is that in the Bible?' 

"John: 'Yes, it is, sure.' 

"Pat: 'Then I believe that, too.' 

"John: 'Do you believe that Samson caught 
three hundred foxes and tied their tails together 
and set them afire and let them go?' 

"Pat: 'Is that in the Bible?' 

"John: 'Yes, sure it is.' 

"Pat: 'Then I do not believe it; I have caught 
foxes and I know Samson or nobody else can 
catch three hundred of them and I don't believe 
that at all, and I will go back on that whale 
story, too, and I'll not believe anything in the 
Bible at all.' 

"But more seriously, as to what I believe. 

"Perhaps my environments were unfavorable 
to the formation of correct views of theology 
and religion, as my early ideas on that question 
were confined to what my mother instilled into 



THE INDIAN REIylGION 59 

my mind, which ideas have always been held 
sacred by me, because I know what she taught 
was from the sincerity of her heart. Since that 
time my reading and the information I have 
gained by associating with my white brethren 
has caused me to change my mind, so far as 
to believe in the God of the white people and 
to believe in heaven, and a life of eternal un- 
happiness for the dishonest, the hypocrite and 
the criminal. The Indians always believed in a 
future existence as well as the white people. 
Yet I do not believe that heaven is a place of 
golden streets and pearly gates, but regard that 
as an erroneous and harmful view to convey to 
the young and to all people, because gold is 
nothing that gives pleasure except to the miser, 
the mean, the stingy, all of which is illiberal, 
selfish, miserly and opposed to all my ideas of 
a broad, sensible Christianity. 

"Suppose the walls, the floors and furniture of 
your houses were pure gold and you walked upon 
it and sat upon it and handled it every day 
and saw it every time you opened your eyes, 
how long would you be happy with your golden 
home? How long would you want to stay in 
that home to look at the cold, smooth, glistening 
gold? You could not sleep on it, you could not 
eat it when hungry. You would grow weary of 
its appearance, and would leave your own home 



60 I.KGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI,I.KY 

to get away from the sham and show, which 
could afford you neither use nor pleasure. 

"Human beings are not calculated and organized 
for monotony in anything. The human mind must 
have variety. You have heard that true old say- 
ing that 'variety is the spice of life.' It is not 
only the spice of life, but variet}^ is a necessity 
for healthy, physical and mental life. Shut a man 
in his young life in a place where he could see 
but one thing, and his physical life will soon be 
a wreck. Compel the individual to study and 
consider but one thing, and he will soon be nar- 
row^ and contracted in his views and wholly unable 
to consider anything in a broad, liberal, fair. 
Christian view of the subject. 

"I knew a man, by name of Watson, who 
was an educated gentleman, an honor to his 
family, an ornament to the neighborhood and 
added interest to every public gathering. He 
undertook the study of spiritualism and confined 
his reading and thinking to that subject. 

"He gradually became silent. His nature seemed 
to gradually change and he withdrew from the 
society and the associations of men, and event- 
ually lost his reason. He thought only of spirit- 
ualism and that robbed him of his reason, his 
usefulness, his life. Not that thinking of spiritual- 
ism necessarily played havoc with his reason, but 
the continual confinement of the mind to that one 



THE INDIAN RKI.IOION 61 

subject, ignoring all others, denying the mind the 
diversion, relief and relaxation it naturally would 
have enjoyed by considering other subjects, and 
denying and preventing the rest and strength 
which are a necessity to our healthy mental nature, 
brought wreck and ruin to his reason. 

"The preachers of Christian denominations warn 
their hearers against the love of gold. They say 
that the love of gold is the very root of evil. 
You must use the gold for the extension of the 
gospel, to all of which I fully agree. But they 
then tell you that you should seek a home in 
Heaven, and as an inducement to do so, they tell 
you that there are golden streets there, that 
Heaven has pearly gates, and that the walls are 
of precious stones, and you should strive to reach 
there and live in this happy place. I have heard 
this golden street argument more than any other. 
If the love of gold is pernicious why hold it up 
before the people to allure them? The idea is 
all wrong. There is nothing heavenly in golden 
streets. Who wants to walk on a street of gold.^ 
The majority of church members in this vicinity 
would be outrageously unhappy if they had to 
walk on gold all day and could not dig it up. 
Compel them to walk everywhere on gold and 
they would have, not a fashionable convulsion, 
but a genuine, old fashioned fit. 

"When the prodigal son, with repentant heart, 



62 IvKGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

returned, he did not stop to look for mahogany 
furniture trimmed with gold, and ask to see the 
jewelry of the family. No, no, he wrapped his 
arms around his old father's neck and wanted 
nothing on earth but to be welcomed home. So 
when we arrive in the heaven beyond the dark 
waters of the valley, we will look, not to see the 
brilliancy of the place, but if we can see the 
dear ones who have gone before us, if we can 
see the approving face of Jesus, our Savior, and 
hear the song of the redeemed of 'Welcome 
Home,' it will be enough — it will be enough. 

''The Happy Hunting Grounds of the Indian, 
with hills, vales, trees, rivers, grassy nooks, 
shady coves and sylvan bowers is the more 
correct idea, where there is sun, shade and 
scenery in infinite variety. Oh, but they say 
the angels will sing in heaven on the golden 
rostrum. I would rather hear them sing among 
the hills and vales, in shady nooks with crystal 
waters gurling eternal music, that comforts the 
heart of the whole human family. 

"The Great Spirit, the Indian understands, made 
nature in its life and beauty for man to enjoy, 
and which will impart life and health to the 
physical nature, and by which the mental part 
of man would be strengthened and enlightened 
and rendered capable of imparting pleasure and 
happiness to others. Longfellow's idea of heaven 



THE INDIAN REI.IGION 63 

comes nearer my own than the golden streets- 
pearly gates idea. 

** 'What is that Nokomis?' And the good 
Nokomis answered: 

" 'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there; 

All the wild flowers of the forest, 

All the lillies of the prairie, 

When on earth they fade and perish, 

Blossom in that heaven above us.' 

"Even 'acres of roses and miles of palms* might 
not prove to be distasteful. 

"We are so constituted that society is a neces- 
sity. Humanity must associate with humanity, 
otherwise our cheerful, useful, intellectual influence 
to others would all be lost forever. 

"The minds of human beings are varied; one 
strong, another weak, one inclined to one de- 
partment of industry, while his brother will follow 
another. One mind is naturally constituted to 
build houses, another to manufacture tools, another 
to preach, another to music and song and 
another to studv the stars of heaven, while still 
another will study the winds and the waves, and 
thereby foretell the weather for days to come. 
This variety of mind and the benefit and pleasure 
of hearing of others and gathering their thoughts 
from books, lectures and other sources is what 
makes the mind grow in strength, practicability 
and usefulness. This is what gives mental power 
and mental scope to the mind of mortals, result- 



64 I.EGENDS OF I,OST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

ing in the blessing of all mankind, so that mental 
association is essential to a healthful, mental ex- 
istence and essential to the happiness of man, 
whether he is one plane of existence or another, 
as I understand, the philosophy of individual ex- 
istence. I understand that heaven will be a 
place where the mind of mortals redeemed and 
re-embodied will intellectually enjoy themselves, 
where advancement in happiness and existence in 
the very presence of God, the angels and the 
just and good will grow in interest and joy 
forever more. 

"So now what is there that proves to you 
and me that the happiness of the good and just 
in the lands on 'the other side' shall not be 
augmented by mingling together in songs of 
praise and walks through the 'parks' of heaven. 
The songs of angels may enhance the glories of 
the place. The stars may sing together in 
the morning of eternal glory, and the spirits of 
the just made perfect shall bless all other spirits 
that in the providence of God shall enter that 
holy place. 

"Another thing: the mind of men and women is 
full of emotion, is full of love, is full of tender 
attachment. Like the love of mother for her child, 
the love of children for their parents and this 
great love that God in his providence has planted 
in the breast of human beings can never die. 



THE INDIAN REI.IGION 65 

''Who can measure the depth and purity of a 
mother's love? Although she has forsaken every- 
thing that is pure and good and has lived in 
depravity and wickedness, still she will cling, to 
the very death even, to the child of her shame. 
It is said that the lily grows purer and more 
perfect in the blackest mud. But when a mother 
has forsaken all that makes a woman pure and 
good, and drags her person, her life and charac- 
ter into the sinks of iniquity, tell me what power 
it is that still preserves the mother love in her 
heart so that it lives and grows in strength and 
seeming purity in the very midst of extreme 
depravity. Why was it not tainted, drowned and 
blotted out by the burden of sin and shame that 
crushed her life, her heart, her ver}' soul in de- 
spair and wretchedness? God created it; he 
planted it in the mother's heart, there to remain 
forever. The mother's heart is the safety vault 
box and God holds the key. A kindred love 
lives in the hearts of children even when death 
has claimed iheir mother and her body has passed 
into dust. It lives and grows between loved ones 
even when they are separated by distance and 
years, and is even rendered stronger and more 
enduring by the separation. I think that one of 
the greatest sources of happiness that will fill the 
heaven above will be the recognition and enjoy- 
ment of those we love, and love will be purified. 



66 IvEGENDS OF I<OST RIVER VAIvLEY 

happiness will be rendered more sweet and all 
this will add to the purity of the devotion, and 
will augment the praises given to the Universal 
Father of us all. 

''I can hardly believe that an Eternal City is 
an ideal Heaven. Man made the City. I rather 
think that a glorious Eternal Country, the better 
idea of Heaven. The Indians say 'The country 
of souls.' God made the hills, the mountains, 
the grass, the valleys, the trees and the flowers; 
and He planted in the breast of all mankind an 
undying love for all these things. These natural 
attractions were created for the enjoyment and 
happiness of human beings, and these are the 
things which contribute most naturally and most 
easily to satisfy the yearnings of men and women. 
Go to the great parks about the great cities, on 
Sunday afternoon, and see what the great crowds 
of people love. Men, women and children of all 
ages come in their best clothes, with their best 
friends to enjoy the air, the hills, the lakes, the 
water, the trees, the birds, the grass and the 
flowers; and all this happiness, and all this satis- 
faction is because our Creator, in His infinite 
wisdom, planted a love for all these things down 
deep in the hearts of all His people; and this 
is true of all the nations, tribes and peoples, who 
bask in the sunshine of Heaven. Wise men pro- 
vided these parks, moved by the knowledge that 



THE INDIAN KEIvIGlON 67 

the sight of these things furnishes unbounded 
pleasure to a busy, struggHng, hard-working race, 
and especially to honest men who, as God in- 
tended, earn their bread by the sweat of their 
faces. Why do not park commissioners erect large 
buildings and trim them with gold and invite the 
public to come in and be happy. They know 
better than that. We all know better. 

"A beautiful park is an oasis in the desert of 
city humdrum life. It is utihzed for this pur- 
pose because it is universally known that beau- 
tiful, natural scenery has the effect of resting the 
tired brain, the tired back and the tired hands. 
The power of affording this rest and this relief 
grows directly out of the fact that the universal 
love of these things is ' deeply planted in the 
breast of the entire human family. 

"There is an attractiveness in natural scenery 
that satisfies, rests and soothes the mind like the 
cadence of a much loved song. The hand that 
planted the stars in the sky and taught them to 
sing together in the morning, keeps nature's mu- 
sical instruments in tune. The hurricane is ever 
ready to terrify us with its force, and roar and 
power; the gentler breezes ready to sing through 
the trees and bear to us the fragrance from the 
flowers; the waters of the restless sea, ready to 
lash the shore and fume and fret and die away; 
the w^aters of the cataract ready to rush, plunge 



68 I^EGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 

and roar over the precipice; the merry brooks 
ready to ripple and murmur as they gambol over 
their rocky bed, and the song birds ready to 
greet the rising of the morning with voices that 
are cheery and always in tune. Nature's 'harp 
of a thousand strings' is always in order, render- 
ing music always harmonious — always concordant 
— a welcome benediction to nature's children, 
whether civilized human beings, savages in the 
wilderness or wild beasts in the jungle. Is it 
not, then, a reasonable conclusion that all these 
natural attractions will form at least a great and 
very important part of the sources of happiness in 
the 'Island of the Blessed' in the 'Land of the 
Hereafter'. 

" 'In the desert a fountain is spring-ing, 
In the wild waste there still is a tree. 

And a bird in the solitude singing-, 
Which speaks to my spirit of Thee.' 

"One of the most delightful and satisfying ele- 
ments of Eternal Happiness, one cherished by all 
Christian nations on earth, is that after cross- 
ing the Dark Valley we will be welcomed to 
a Home beyond the sea. Human beings, as 
well as the lower animals, are all created with 
the love of home deeply implanted in their 
very existence. Take the dog or the horse 
miles from home and as soon as released he 
will, in heat or rain or storm, turn his foot- 
steps homeward. The homing pigeon, when 



THE INDIAN RKWGION 69 

released far from home, will cross moun- 
tains, lakes and strange lands, with the flight 
of an arrow to gain a sight of its cherished 
home. The school boy or school girl, when away 
from home sometimes die of home-sickness. The 
patriot travelling in foreign lands hurries home- 
ward with throbbing heart to his own people and 
his own country. It is universally acknowledged 
that the best citizens of any country, the best sol- 
diers of any army, are those who have the love 
of home implanted in their hearts. 

"This love of home establishes families and pro- 
tects and supports those families in the enjoyment 
of health, happiness and usefulness. To protect 
his home and those around the hearthstone, the 
soldier will rush to the field of battle, and give 
up his life in defense of that home and those 
dear to him there. 

" 'Cling- to thy home! If there the meanest shed 
Yield thee a hearth and shelter for thy head, 
And some poor plot with vegetables stored, 
Be all that Heaven allots thee for thy board, 
Unsavory bread and herbs that scattered g^row 
Wild on the river-brink or mountain brow; 
Yet e'en this cheerless mansion shall provide 
Where hearts repose than all the world besides.' 

"Songs lauding the benefits and blessings of 
home are the dearest to the hearts of all civil- 
ized peoples. Father's protecting care is always 
there for his children. Mother's love never grows 
cold around the fireside where her children played, 



70 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

and the sister's loving heart sends a constant 
prayer to her wandering brother to come home — 
brother come home. 

"When Sir Walter Scott wrote the lines com- 
mencing, 'Breathes there a man with soul so dead,' 
etc., he sent a thrill through the hearts of all 
civilized nations. They sanctioned it — adopted the 
sentiment and made it their own. Those lines 
now are the property of the world — so to remain 
forever. 

"What becomes of the love of home when life 
goes out? Will it survive the gloom of the grave? 
Will it be resurrected with the immortal existence 
beyond the River? Will not this element of 
human happiness, planted by our Creator in the 
heart of the whole animal world enter into our 
existence, in that heavenly Home, established by 
our Creator himself, and of which our earthly 
homes, with all their benefits and sacredness, are 
but an imperfect shadow? No more pure or 
sacred emotion lives in the human heart than love 
for mother, home and Heaven, and that love will 
be the most irresistible emotion experienced by 
ransomed souls in that Home beyond the sea, 
where loving hands will remove all trembling 
tears from our faces and the song 'of 'Welcome 
Home' will be a thrilling realization which will 
vanish never more. 

"The general belief of the Indians is that 



THE INDIAN REI^IGION 71 

after death their souls have a long distance to 
travel and that many perils may hinder and delay 
the journey; that death opens the door to Heaven; 
that death should not be viewed with fear, but 
with complacency; that they must all be brave; 
that cowards never enter Heaven; that the Great 
Manito (the Great Merciful Spirit) presides in 
Heaven; that he is a God of mercy and not a 
God of punishment; that his voice is that of a 
^ father welcoming home his wandering children, 
and that he will reHeve them of all suffering 
and pain; that the brave and the good always 
make a safe journey to the land of the blessed; 
where the trees are always green; the sky is 
never clouded; where cooling breezes blow forever; 
where there is no pain, but rejoicing in eternal 
youth, and that there is an everlasting future 
existence in the islands of the blessed — the happy 
country of souls. 

"Great Manito is the Great Merciful Spirit. In 
apposition to the Merciful Spirit they believe in 
the Mache-Manito or bad spirit, and it is usual 
for Indians to try to appease the bad spirit to 
save them from being visited by evil. 

"Here is an Indian prayer from an old book 
on the Indians. This prayer indicates what their 
religion is, in a definite way. I regard it as 
correct and truthful: 



72 I^KGENDS OF LOST KIVRR VAI.LBY 

♦''Great Spirit, Master of our lives; Great Spirit, 
Master of all things, both visible and invisible; 
Great Spirit, Master of other spirits, whether good 
or evil, command the good spirits to favor thy 
children, the Outaouas. Command the evil spirits 
to keep at a distance from them. O, Great Spirit! 
keep up the strength and courage of our v^^arriors, 
that they may be able to stem the fury of our ene- 
mies; preserve the old persons whose bodies are 
not yet quite wasted, that they may give counsel to 
the young. Preserve our children, enlarge their 
number, deliver them from evil spirits, to the end 
that in our old age they may prove our support and 
comfort; preserve our harvest and our beasts, if 
thou mean'st that they should not die from hunger; 
take care of our villiages, and guard our huntsmen 
in their hunting adventures. Deliver us from all 
fatal surprises, when thou ceasest to vouchsafe us 
the light of the sun, which speaks thy grandeur and 
power. Acquaint us by the spirit of dreams, with 
what thy pleasure requires of us, or prohibits us to 
do. When it pleases thee to put a period to our 
lives, send us to the great Country of Souls, where 
we may meet with those of our fathers, our mothers, 
and our wives, our children and our relations. O, 
Great Spirit! Great Spirit! hear the voice of the na- 
tion, give ear to thy children, and remember them 
at all times.' 

''So, when I go hence, I do not intend to be 
looking about to see if the gates are of pearl and 
the streets of gold. I do not expect to stop to 
gaze about for the precious stone that ornament 
the pillars and jewel the doors. No, no, that is 
earthly, that is selfish, that is serving the God of 
Mammon. When I get there I want to see the tender, 
forgiving face of Jesus Christ, m}^ Savior. I want 



the; INDIAN KEIylGION 73 

to see the tender, loving face of my dear young 
-mother. Without her, it will be no heaven for me. 
I know her arms are outstretched to welcome me, 
her heart is bursting with emotion for her un- 
worthy child. And whatever may be right and 
wrong as to these things, I believe, yes, I know 
that I shall meet my friends in Heaven and I 
wait that meeting with unwavering confidence. 

" 'Serene I fold my hands and wait, 
Nor care for wind, or tide, or sea, 

I rave no more 'g-ainst time or fate. 
For lo! my own shall come to me. 

'Asleep, awake, by nig^ht or day. 
The friends I seek are seeking- me; 

No wind can drive my bark astray, 
Nor chang-e the tide of destiny. 

'What matter if I stand alone? 

I wait with joy the coming" years; 
My heart shall reap where it has sown, 

And g"arner up its fruit of tears. 

'The waters know their own, and draw 
The brooks that spring in yonder heig^hts, 

So flows the g-ood with equal law. 
Unto the soul of pure delig-ht. 

'The stars come nig-htly to the sky, 

The tidal wave unto the sea, 
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high 

Can keep my own away from me.' 

"The influences of Christianity, imperceptably to 
myself, gradually and surely filled and controlled 
my mind and heart and gave me great happiness. 

" 'As on the river's rising tide 

Comes strength and coolness from the sea.' 

''So this knowledge and belief in the ruler of 

heaven and earth came as a benediction to my soul. 



74 I^KGKNDS OF LOST RIVKR VALLEY 

''And here I must say that while I believe in 
the God of the white man, I believe the Bible 
and its teachings, and I know that it says, 'Thou 
shall have no other gods before me,' still I can 
not forget the teachings of my mother. She 
taught me to love the Great Spirit of the Indian, 
she taught my stubborn little hands to fold in 
prayer to her God, and when I think of her and 
when I hope to meet her in Heaven, I even yet 
fold my hands as she taught me. I pray to the 
Great Spirit that she loved and in whom she 
trusted and it has always seemed to me, and it 
still holds me with a conviction as strong as death, 
that if I fail to reverence her God and fail to 
hope to meet her through the mercy of the Great 
Spirit, that I would be unfaithful to the mother 
who loved me so, and may thereby forfeit my right 
to meet her in the 'happy hunting grounds' where 
flowers and the songs of angels will welcome me 
to her loving arms. 

"I pray to the God of Heaven in whom I be- 
lieve, but still I can not forsake the Great Spirit 
to whom I prayed in my childhood. I know my 
mother will gain entrance to Heaven through the 
mercy of her own God. 

"I live looking forward to a happy entrance to 
the great Heaven beyond the Dark Valley and ex- 
pect my own to welcome me there. 

" 'To the island of the blessed 
To the land of the hereafter.' " 



THE GARNERS 75 



CHAPTER VIII. 
The Garners. 

Mr. Benton: "How about the people in the 
olden times? Tell us some of the old stories of 
the early times." 

Mr. Pontus: ''Very well, I will tell you about a 
family by the name of Garner, that may interest you. 

"Some years ago there lived on the east side of 
Lost River, some miles north of West Baden 
Springs, a man and wife by the name of Garner. 

They were about thirty years of age and had 
one child, Tim. The husband was a plain, honest 
man, who worked his farm and did not suspect 
any one of duplicity or dishonesty. His wife was 
tall and well proportioned, and was considered 
handsome by the neighbors. While the husband 
was very busy on the farm, the wife did the buy- 
ing, and often was off to the stores. They had a 
girl to assist with the house affairs, and look after 
little Tim while the mother was away. The girl, 
Edna, was about eighteen years of age, very quiet, 
pretty and cheerful and always in robust health. 
Edna was always there while the husband and 
wife were away frequently from the house, and 
little Tim learned to love Edna and liked to stay 
with her. If the wife was belated sometimes in 
getting home, Edna had dinner ready and the boy 



76 I^KGKNDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I,KY 

was happy, and so things passed on pleasantly for 
a year or so, when (as folks will talk) some stories 
were circulated regarding the conduct of Mrs. Gar- 
ner. These damaging items of gossip came to the 
ears of her husband who expostulated strenuously 
with his wife, and insisted very firmly that she 
should be more discreet in her ways. The wife was 
quite unmoved by all this, simply saying if people 
knew more they would talk less, and she contin- 
ued about her household matters, apparently quite 
unconcerned. Some weeks later, when the husband 
was at his work, she packed her clothing and per- 
sonal belongings, and told Edna that she must visit 
her sister and might not return for some time; to 
take good care of Tim and keep everything nicely 
for Mr. Garner until her return. She left a letter 
for Mr. Garner as follows: 

" 'My Dear: I am going away never to return. 
Do not worry, as that will be useless and foolish. 
I will take care of myself and will not write you. 
Rely implicitly on every word I say. Good-bye 
forever. Bertha.' 

"When Mr. Garner heard Edna's story about 
the wife going away to her sister and taking her 
things, he was perplexed beyond measure, but when 
he opened the letter handed to him he was stunned 
as if by a blow. He could not eat or sleep, 
and tears rained over his cheeks for days and 
nights together. He felt his disgrace in the neigh- 
borhood most keenly. He did not know where to 



THK GARNKRS 77 

find her. His heart was broken by being thus 
deserted and forsaken. He often talked with Edna 
of the deep ingratitude and heartlessness of his 
wife. In fact, he had no one else to talk with. 
Edna agreed with him in his opinion and often spoke 
of the wickedness of the mother in deserting little 
Tim. His work needed his attention and he found 
he was happier when busy, and so worked hard 
every day in order to keep in mind something 
other than his unfaithful wife. Edna took good care 
of the house and boy. Frequently Mr. Garner 
would say, 'Edna, 3^ou are my onh' friend; what 
would Tim and I have done without you?' 

"A whole year passed and no word from the 
run-away, until one day neighbor Betts called with a 
newspaper, saying that Mrs. Garner had obtained 
a divorce from her husband, out west, on the ground 
of his desertion, and had married Mr. Charles 
Fry, and they moved to Texas. 'What,' says Mr. 
Garner, 'me desert her? What's that?' Mr. Betts 
says, 'Ah, my man, do not be surprised, a fellow 
never knows what he is doing till somebody else 
tells him, and besides, who knows you better than 
that wife of your'n? She said you deserted her, 
and the court found it was true, so it is so whether 
it is so or not. No, go and eat your dinner and 
don't let your mind wander about after a wild goose 
any more. She's deserted, divorced, married and 
gone to Texas, and that is enough for any one man 



78 I^EGENDS OF I^OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

to know, especially when it all comes at once, and 
with a fierce thug.' Mr. Garner did not know 
what to say, so said nothing more. 

"Several months passed and still the unwifely con- 
duct of Tim's mother was the subject of many 
conversations between Mr. Garner and Edna, and 
Mr. Garner would contmually repeat, ^How could 
she desert her childf One evening after he had 
repeated that question several times, Edna says, 
'What bothers me is, hozv could she desert her 
husband^ especially so, when he was so good and 
kind in every way as you always are. You cer- 
tainly were deserving of a good wife and a good 
mother for Tim. His mother has disgraced him.' 
Mr. Garner broke off the conversation and walked 
to and fro on the long porch in silence for one 
hour, and Edna busied herself putting Tim to 
bed and getting everything in order for the night. 

"The da}' was warm but the evening was cool 
and refreshing. Three great pines grew in front of 
the house and so wide-spreading and dense were 
their branches that the long front porch seemed 
hemmed in like a room under the protection of the 
foliage. In the tangled nooks of this foliage the 
birds from the thickets that carpet the banks of 
Lost River, and the winds from the hills beyond 
West Baden and French Lick had much to say, 
which sayings, although in the midst of whispering 
pines, were sometimes boisterous, now reminding 



THE GARNEJRS 79 

one of a tornado and again of a picnic of an aerial 
choir. Mr. Garner came, as Edna was seated on 
this porch, and said, 'Edna, in all my trouble you 
have been my only comfort. You have always 
been faithful, kind and good, and I now find that 
you are necessary to my happiness; you are worthy 
of my confidence and of all the devotion that I 
am able to bestow upon you. If a thousand women 
were here no one of them would ever have the 
place in my heart that belongs to you. Yes, 
Edna, I love you, and ask you to be a wife to 
me and a mother to my child.' Edna rose and 
said, 'Mr. Garner, I thank you for all you have 
said, but I can not answer now. I will think about 
it, and will see you to-morrow evening, and now, 
good-night.' It is not definitely known, but some 
one said she kissed him good-night, but the evi- 
dence is entirely circumstantial. 

"The next evening when little Tim was snugly 
tucked in bed and his mind was wandering among 
the grass-carpeted nooks of dreamland, Mr. Garner 
was sitting in his big chair on the porch with 'a 
sort of expectant look in his eyes. Edna approached 
him slowly, with the demurest look (on which she 
seemed to have a copyright) on her interesting 
face. He said, 'Come on, my girl. You seemed 
so sober all day that I am worried. Now come 
and tell me that you will be my wife, and make 
this the happiest evening of my life.' He drew 



80 IvEGENDS OF I.OST RIVBR VAIvI^KY 

her to him and she sat on the great arm of his 
chair. She said, 'Mr. Garner, you say I have 
been very sober all day. That is true, because 
I can not give you my answer until I first re- 
move a great weight from my mind and a great 
burden from my heart. Now let me tell you: 
You recollect when I first came here a man 
brought me in a carriage and said that I had 
lived in his family for six months, and that I was 
a good girl. That they were breaking up house- 
keeping, otherwise they would not let me go. 
Then he talked to your wife on this porch and 
then drove away, and I have never set eyes on 
him since, nor do I ever desire to do so. You 
please forgive me for not telling you before this, 
but that man was my divorced husband. I lived 
with him just six months when I was divorced 
from him because he was so very cruel to me. 
He said he knew he was to blame and did not 
come to court. After that he tried to find a 
home for me so I could take care of myself. 
When he met your wife at the time he came with 
me, he told her where he was employed in a 
store and he and she became acquainted and 
saw each other often, and when Mrs. Garner was 
absent so often she was with him. When my 
sister came to see me she told me all this, and 
many, many nights I cried myself to sleep because 
I could not venture to tell you what was going 



the; gaknkrs 81 

on, and he is the man that Mrs. Garner has now 
married, and they are living together now. I 
learned all this and could not tell you, and 
knowing this, it seemed like guilty knowledge to 
me and rested like a continual shadow on my 
very soul, and made me, oh, so unhafpy. Now 
you know my story. I am not a young girl, as 
you think, but was a married woman before I 
came here. Now you understand, and a great 
load is removed from my mind. My heart is 
freed of its burden. My soul is relieved of its 
impending shadow. And now if you, knowing 
this, can still love me, if you can trust me in 
sacred confidence, and if you still ask me to marry 
you, then you have my answer. You have my 
trust and confidence; you can have all the love 
of my troubled heart, and never for one mo- 
ment in all your life will you doubt my faith- 
fulness and my love.' She attempted to rise, 
when he took her in his arms and said, 'Edna, 
your heart was pure and good, otherwise the 
burden would not have been so great. If it 
were possible, my love for you is stronger now 
than before. Come, and we will be happy to- 
gether. I pledge you my undying love and 
faithfulness.' 'And I,' said Edna, 'pledge my most 
sacred love to you, and to dear, little, sleeping, 
loving, darling Tim.' 



82 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VALLEY 

♦'A few days later they drove to the old justice 
of the peace, who soon discharged his part of the 
transaction and pronounced them man and wife, 
the venerable justice adding that it was frequently 
a part of the ceremony that the justice should kiss 
the bride, but in cases like this, where the bride 
has peach-blow cheeks, that such a practice was 
not only usual but indispensible — in fact, a sine qua 
noil. Whereupon he proceeded to perform the 
remainder of the cereinony. The congratulations of 
the friends, and especially those of neighbor Betts, 
were hearty beyond description, and Mr. Garner 
was so happy and elated over the denouement 
that he related the w^hole story of family hap- 
penings to the justice. His Honor remarked that 
he had frequently heard of swapping horses and 
knives^ but this was the first case of swapping 
husbands and wives that had ever come within his 
jurisdiction" [exeunt]. 



CARRIE IvEE 83 



CHAPTER IX. 
Carrie Lee. 

Mr. Pontus: "Now, I will tell one of Carrie Lee. 

"It had rained incessantly for two weeks in 
Lost River Valley. The gulleys and washouts 
on the hillsides about West Baden were full of 
angry waters. The ravines on the mountain side 
beyond French Lick were filled with double, yes 
triple, quota of maddened waters, striving to reach 
the broad valley below. 

"Each stream seemed fuller than the others and 
they all joined their accumulation of waters in one 
grand round-up in the valley and about the noted 
springs, even submerging the springs beneath the 
unusual flood of waters. 

"Below this, and at a point in the valley where 
the hills came nearest each other, was a wooden 
bridge reaching from bank to bank over Lost 
River, which bridge was carried away and its 
timbers scattered over the wide valley of waters, 
without apology or explanation. 

"The commissioners of the County of Orange 
concluded to establish a ferry there, in order to 
afford a means of crossing the river until the 
bridge could be rebuilt and ready for use. A 
mechanic in the neighborhood, Mr. Ben. Gilsey, 
was engaged to put a ferry in operation at the 



84 ■ I.KGKNDS OF I.OST RIVER VALI.EY 

point designated. The material was hauled to the 
place, the ferry boat was ready, but they had no 
smaller boat to carry the ferry cable across the 
rushing water. 

"For a whole day they planned and made 
proposals as to the manner of getting the cable 
across, but no feasable plan was agreed to. In 
the meantime Mr. Gilsey took his meals at the 
house of Mr. Lee, a short way from the bridge 
site. Mr. Lee's daughter, Carrie, heard of the 
difficulty and delay. She had been reared on the 
bank of the White River and was an expert 
swimmer. To the surprise of all parties, Miss 
Carrie, who was seventeen years of age, and as 
tall and straight as girls ever grow, said if they 
would furnish a twine cord, she would swim 
across and carry it, and then they could attach a 
rope and then with the rope draw the cable 
across. 

"A general cheer went up from all hands and 
they agreed to furnish the twine if she would go, 
but they feared to let her make the attempt as 
the water was so wide and the current so swift 
that they feared for her safety. Her father said 
that she would swim over all right, and so it was 
agreed that she might make the trial, but fears 
were expressed as to her ability to cross the cur- 
rent, which was rapid and tortuous. 

"Carrie Lee soon appeared in a bathing suit of 



CARRIE I.RR 85 

her own make, and the twine ball was given her. 
She tied it around her waist, told Mr. Gilsey to 
stand on a clear knob on the bank and to pay 
out the twine as needed, and to keep it clear of all 
drift wood. She then walked quite a distance up 
the stream in order to avoid being carried too far 
down by the current, and leaped into the water 
and headed for the other side. All spectators on 
both sides watched her head as she passed into 
the swift current and on until she was again in 
the quieter water, and until she climbed up the 
opposite bank, when she held the twine aloft and 
a general shout rang across the valley. She 
turned the string over to the men, who soon had 
a rope stretched across the river and were arrang- 
ing to pull the cable across. 

"At this juncture, Carrie walked away and was 
soon in the water again, and while Mr. Gilsey 
and the men were preparing to start the cable 
into the water, Miss Carrie came quietly into the 
shore again, having swam across the second time. 

"Business was suspended; Mr. Gilsey and an- 
other took Carrie by the arms and escorted her to 
her house, a few rods away, amid the uproarous 
shouts of all men present. 

" 'For twice that day from shore to shore, 
The brave sweet g-irl swam quickly o'er.' 

"She was a general favorite, and all had words 
of commendation, and all seemed to admit he was 



86 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VA1,I.EY 

helpless to do the lady justice for her bravery and 
skill in crossing the river under the circumstances. 

"The cable was finished, and when ready, Miss 
Carrie was the honored guest for the first ride. 
The ferry was left in running order, but still Mr. 
Gilsey came now and then to see if it operated 
in a satisfactory manner. 

"The next year the county commissioners ordered 
a bridge to be erected, and Ben Gilsey was 
placed in charge of its construction, and made 
his home at Mr. Lee's for six months; when the 
bridge was finished Mr. Gilsey found it necessary 
to return now and then to inspect the bridge. 
In the meantime Miss Carrie had become a mature 
young lady, and some of the parties inquired of 
Gilsey by way of joke if he found the bridge all 
right. 'Yes, the bridge is all right, and I am 
proud to say that the girl who swam that angry 
river for us is deserving of a good husband and 
I propose to try to be worthy of her myself.' 

"They were married soon and Mr. Gilsey's 
toast at the wedding was, 'Here's to the girl 
who swam the river for me. I propose to spend 
the balance of my life in making her happy.' 

"The husband became a noted builder and they 
lived long and happy lives together and Mr. 
Gilsey never tired telling the story of how he 
married the girl who swam the river from bank 
to bank across Lost River Valley, when no man 
present had the courage to do so." 



THE HOUCKS 



CHAPTER X. 
The Houcks. 

Mr. Pontus: "Now, gentlemen, I can give you 
a short story about a long family. 

"The most numerous family in Lost River 
Valley was known as 'The Houcks.' The old 
grandfather, Ben Houck, was married when young 
and he and his wife seemed to recognize the scrip- 
tural duty to 'be fruitful, multiply and replenish 
the earth.' So when ten years of married life had 
passed over their heads, they had eight white 
headed little rascals climbing about them. Then 
the wife and mother died suddenly, leaving Mr. 
Houck with a lot of little children and no mother 
to look after them. His home was a substantial, 
large, well-built log house with plenty of rooms 
at either end and a large hall through the center. 
Mr. Houck certainly planned his home with 
proper calculation for the future. Only one year 
passed after the death of the wife, when Ben 
found another wife, who was 3^oung in years but 
did not hesitate to assume the responsible position 
of step-mother to the crowd of noisy youngsters. 
It was surprising to observe the easy way in 
which they all lived together. Ben and the 
larger boys were usually out on the farm at 
work and the new mother, with the assistance of 



88 I^EGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI^I^EY 

the girls, attended to all matters at home. In the 
course of the twelve years next following the new 
mother had excelled her prolific predecessor and had 
added to the family ten children, making in all 
eighteen of them, ranging in age from one to 
twenty years. As old Ben had so much help 
on the farm the work progressed ver}^ nicely, 
but a new trouble cast a shadow over the entire 
family. The second wife was taken away, leav- 
ing Mr. Houck with 'children and children' and 
although he had daughters now grown, Ben con- 
cluded that they needed a mother very much, or, 
perhaps, owing to the unbroken stillness that pre- 
vailed about his home, he resolutely found a third 
wife, who was many years his junior, and in ac- 
cordance with the rules which had been too well 
and too long established in the family to be in- 
terfered with by any ordinary consideration, he was 
^blessecP with youngsters 'galore' who were mo- 
thered and nurtured into life and health by the 
third wife. And such a crowd of fat, saucy, flaxen 
haired youngsters were never together before or 
since. 

"As time and years will work changes, which no 
earthly power can prevent, it was an established 
and conceded fact that Mr. Houck was now 'Old 
Ben,' and gathered about him was his family of 
twenty-eight children, when all at home. 

"The hall in the center of the house was ver}' 



THE HOUCKS 89 

large and was generally a gathering place for the 
family. The girls lived on one side of the great 
hall and the boys on the other and the big hall be- 
tween belonged to them all. The noise, the 
hilarity, the troubles, the disputes, the reprimands 
were all in vogue on each succeeding day with un- 
faihng and painful regularity. 

"Old Ben was old and rheumatic, he had 'seen 
his best days' and could not do much but walk 
about and tell his friends of his twenty-eight chil- 
dren, and of the extraordinary accomplishments 
and achievements of his numerous progeny. 

"But now^ another influence entered into the 
life of the Houcks. Grandfather Newton, who 
owned a farm on the south and who had three 
sons, being very old, had some years previous 
divided his farm among them. Jake lived on one 
hill and Ike on the other, while David remained 
in the old home down in the Valley. The three 
boys were married and, as years wagged by, 
had about ten children each, and the number of 
boys and girls were about equal and about the 
same ages as the Houcks. 

"When the twenty-eight Houcks and the thirty 
Newton children and other near-by children con- 
gregated in the evening, for the purpose of dis- 
pelling the solitude prevailing in the vicinity, the 
scene was animated and not easily described. The 
string band was always in demand. They would 



90 LKGKNDS OF I.OST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

dance in Uncle Ben's hall- way, dance in the barns; 
also at other houses in the neighborhood, and on 
such occasions the uproar was emphatically up- 
roarous. They frequently had trouble among them- 
selves, and so many controversies arising, it was 
not unusual to have a daily 'bout.' One day Elijah 
Newton came down the road through the woods 
making a noise that resembled that of a bull and 
when the Houck boys awakened to the situation, 
they saw a pair of bulls horns fastened on his 
head. This they understood to be a challenge, or, 
as they expressed it, 'a defy.' So they chose Sam 
Houck to go and subdue this 'bull of the woods.' 
The 'gladiators' were each about eighteen years 
of age, and were so evenlv matched that they 
fought for forty minutes and wore each other out 
to such an extent that they lay on the ground 
holding to each other, but so weak and helpless 
that neither could injure his antagonist. The fight 
was declared 'a draw' and each party claimed their 
champion had the best of it. 

"In these battles the clothes would be torn from 
the 'champions' and their eyes would be black 
and sometimes entirely closed and the writer recol- 
lects distinctly of seeing six boys, walking in a 
circle with their half naked champion in the cen- 
ter. They traveled in this way to the nearest 
barn, where they would keep out of view, until 
suitable clothes would be secured. 



THE HOUCKS 91 

''Another thing that made important changes 
and resulted in tangling the families more than 
ever was the fact that the members of the two 
families would inter-marry. Every year would 
be enlivened by several weddings. 

"Doctor Houck married Betsy Newton and David 
Newton married Sallie Houck and so on from 
year to year, until in later years they were so 
mixed up by inter-marriages that they could not 
tell what relation they were to each other. 

"Many of the girls were married at the age of 
sixteen and were mothers while wearing short 
dresses, and then came the grandchildren here and 
there, so that children were plentiful in the houses, 
in the gardens, in the fields and everywhere, re- 
minding one of the grasshoppers sitting along the 
fence waiting for the w^heat to come up. 

"One of the older Houck children was a little 
white-haired, wizzen-faced fellow, named John. He 
married the first Newton girl he saw, and they 
had one child, Elisha. They lived about eighteen 
years together, when the wife died, and the 
husband, who drank so much that he was dubbed 
'Whiskey Houck,' married a young woman who 
soon had a child named Bessie. But continued 
dissipation overcame Whiskey Houck 'and he died 
also.' After 'Whiskey' died, his son Elisha lived 
in the house with his stepmother for some months, 
when on a warm summer evening they quietly 



92 I.KGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

sought a justice of the peace and were married, 
and a child, named Ben, was soon born to them. 
And here the relationship grew uncertain. Elisha 
had married his stepmother. The widow was now 
the wife of her own step-son. Bessie's half-brother, 
Elisha, was her step-father. As to the mother, 
Bessie and Ben were half-brother and sister. As 
to the father, Bessie was Ben's aunt, Bessie's own 
mother was her sister-in-laws and if 'Whiskey' 
could have returned to life it would have taken 
him till now to definitely settle the exact relation 
existing between the various members of his im- 
mediate family. 

"Many daring and ludicrous events transpired in 
the Valley during the years that the big-boy-age 
was common among the Houcks. 

"One winter we had fine sleighing all through 
the holiday season. They cut a log about fort}^ 
feet long with a high bend at the end, on which 
they placed the horns of a deer, for the head, 
and appended the tail of an ox on the other end. 
They built a long, tall neck, and when completed 
it was easily the fiercest animal that ever inhabited 
the Valley. 

"They mounted this log on the bob-sleds which 
were used to haul logs to the saw mill, using 
scantling or posts for legs. The legs on the log 
were about four feet long, so that the back of 
the 'Reindeer' was about five feet from the 



THR HOUCKS 93 

ground. They placed scantling from one end to 
the other along the sides, about thirty inches below 
the back of the 'Reindeer' for 'stirrups,' or as a 
rest for their feet. They trimmed the 'Animal' 
with ribbons made of bunting stretched here and 
there over its entire 'symetrical' proportions. 
They then provided an abundant supply of whiskey 
at two points, one on either side of the valley and 
one-half mile apart. They hitched six horses to 
the 'Deer,' had sleigh bells and cow bells on 
every horse. They had drums, pans, horns and 
horse fiddles, and had two boxes nailed on the 
sides of the 'Deer,' in each of which they tied 
several of the largest hound dogs in the neigh- 
borhood, and then all was ready. Thereupon, 
John (who had a little, wizzen-face, white-haired, 
thin, long, chin-whiskers, red eyes, big eyed spec- 
tacles, which he wore crooked on his nose), arose 
and in a piping voice, said: 

" 'Gentlemen, as I am the oldest, the hand- 
sojnest and the brainiest one present, I am b}^ the 
parliamentary laws of England and America entitled 
to act as president of this club, which I now^ 
name the "Jolly Boys of Lost River Valley," 
and I consider it indispensible that we proclaim 
certain pungent rules to guide us in the important 
duties before us to-night, and as temporary and 
permanent president of this club I will announce 
three rules for our guidance. 



94 IvEGENDS OF I^OST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

" 'First, No one shall drink before the presi- 
dent has had a smile.' [Great laughter.] 

" ^Second. If any member shall drink oftener 
than the president he shall be dismissed from the 
club.' 

"(Cries of 'Oh, oh.' 'He's a corker.' 'He 
must have had two or three already,' etc.) 

" ' Third, If any member shall take a drink 
without inviting the president and every mem- 
ber in sight he shall be fined the price of ten 
gallons of "1844" for the use of the club.' 

"(Cries of 'great.' 'Hurrah for the president.' 
'John is all right,' etc.) 

" 'And now, gentlemen, having personally — ' 
"A voice: 'I rise to a point of order.' 
"President: 'State your point.' 
"A voice: 'The president is drunk.' 
"President: 'The point is well taken.' 
'" And now, gentlemen, having personally expe- 
rienced '■'How it feels to be a hero,'''' I ask you, 
one and all, to join me in a royal drink to the 
health, happiness and enjoyment of every member 
of this club, composed of the most loyal, manly, 
courageous, intelligent and patriotic men ever as- 
sembled on the face of the globe.' 

"(Great applause and cries, 'John is all right.') 
"They all took a drink, agreeing that was the 
business of greatest importance and was always 
i}i order. 



THE HOUCKS 95 

"Forty boisterous, wild, dare-devil boys and 
men now mounted the 'Reindeer.' When they 
blew the horns all the dogs would howl. They 
rode back and forth across the valley all night, 
stopping at each headquarters to warm up. A 
good deal of warming was necessary. It was 
chilly. Such unearthly noises, such horn blowing, 
such yelling, such dog howling, such cat calls, 
such racket, confusion and such devilish, long- 
distance screeches and bawling in imitation of 
animals was never heard before or since on the 
face of this earth. They had prepared nicknames 
for the whole crowd, and now and then while 
drinking would call the roll to see if the 'Rein- 
deer' had thrown any of the boys. The nick- 
names were Jackass Joe, Dog-Faced Ike, Whis- 
key John, Devil Hank, Mackadoodle and so on. 
All night this devilish revelry continued; so busy, 
so reckless, so drunken and dreadfully noisy were 
they that the gray streaks of morning were en- 
tirel}^ unobserved. 

"At this stage of proceedings John was seen 
climbing upon the Reindeer and spoke as follows: 

"The President: 'Comrades, ladies and gentle- 
men. The morning star is fading away' — 

"Tim: 'Rise to a "pint" of order.' 

"President: 'Well, what's your "pint"?' 

"Tim: 'No ladies present.' 

"President: 'That is so, but I wanted to re- 



96 I^EGKNDS OF I,OST RIVKR VAI.I.EY 

mind you that there are ladies^ and if they are 
not present (hie) we had better be present where 
they are, as morning is here and daylight (hie) 
will not accumulate our ap — no that word acai- 
inulate is not right (hie).' 

"Tim: <You mean "enhance," John.' 

"President: 'No, never. If your present ap- 
pearance was enhanced you would look like the 
missing link between the devil and a bull frog. 
When you get home and your women folks say 
you're drunk, admit it; if they say you're a fool, 
admit the truth. [Laughter.] If they say you 
ought to be killed, admit that is true. Tell them 
the horses gave out — the reindeer gave out — -the 
whiskey gave out, and the night gave out, and 
we gave out, and such calamities, all at once, are 
enough to bear without being curtain lectured and 
excoriated. I got the right word that time and 
you'll all agree with me when you get home. 
Let's go before the light of day intensifies your 
facial contortions. Tom looks like a lobster. Dick, 
like a chimpanzee. Abe, like a cross-eyed tree 
frog. If I did not look better than the rest of 
you I would not get in my house at all. Now, 
boys, excuse me, I should say men, no I should 
say gentlemen. Yes, conservatively speaking, high- 
toned gentlemen, one and all, I bid you good- 
night.' 

"Tim: 'Rise to "pint" of order.' 



THD HOUCKS 97 

"President: 'State your "pint."' 

"Tim: 'It's morning and good-night is not 
in order.' 

"President: 'Well, then you can go home in 
the morning, and now for home, sweet home.' 

"A voice: 'Wait till you get there and it 
may not be so darned sweet.' 

"President: 'We will adjourn singing the old 
song of our fathers which we all love so well.' 
Each chose a different song. You could hear 
'Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot,' 'Baby 
Mine, Baby Mine,' 'Home, Home, Sweet, Sweet 
Home,' 'My Country 'Tis of Thee," 'In the 
Sweet By and B}^' and so on, and the morn- 
ing air was so astonished that it failed to carry 
any particular song and left all in a general bab- 
ble — as nonsensical and silly as the rag-time music 
fiddled by Nero during the burning of Ancient Rome. 

"They all broke up, part of them trying to sing; 
more of them yelling like demons, horns blowing 
and the dogs howling; one or two of the most 
intoxicated of the boys were crying and blubber- 
ing like fools, all together it was confusion con- 
founded, and as they scattered over the fields 
the noise gradually died away and the ride was 
over and the Reindeer had rest. 

"Such a furore, disturbance and profound sen- 
sation was created by this all-night carousal that 
the good people of the neighborhood appeared 



98 I^KGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI<I.EY 

before the grand jury and endeavored to have 
the whole party indicted, and many winters passed 
over the heads of the people of that vicinity be- 
fore the ride on the 'Reindeer' ceased to be the 
standing topic of conversation, and even now the 
old grandmothers shake their heads ominously 
when the subject is mentioned, and declare this 
to be the greatest standing disgrace that ever 
tainted the reputation of their people. 

"The Houcks ran a saw-mill and supplied lum- 
ber to the neighbors, and when the boys married 
they would take lumber and build houses, of about 
two rooms each, on some remote part of the 
farm, and these little houses appeared manywheres 
on the hill sides on either side of the Valley. 
During a great freshet and consequent high water 
in the valley the house in which Ezra Houck 
lived was lifted from its foundation and quietly 
floated away. Ezra broke a hole through the roof 
with an axe and lifted his wife and baby up 
through the roof. The house wandered about for 
some time in the water, and then turned into a 
big eddy on the side of the main current of the 
stream and slowly floated around and around. 
The men soon gathered on the shore and when 
the house circled near a point of land they 
'lassoed' a rope to Ezra, who made it fast to 
the house so the men had it 'in tow.' They 
pulled it in around a point of land into a little 



THE HOUCKS 99 

bay and towed it on a patch of level ground 
in the woods and tied it to the trees. Then the 
men put a log under the floating end of the 
house and propped it in the middle. A few days 
later Ezra ascertained that the house was not on 
his father's land, but in woods belonging to Uncle 
Billy Smith, and two of his friends called on 
Uncle Billy to see about it. Mr. Smith said, 
'Boys, I was out there when the house was 
floating about in deep water, and the way that 
little flaxen-haired mother clung to the roof; the 
way she clung to the child; the way she cried; 
the way she looked ashore for help; the way her 
eyes sent forth a deluge of tears, were things to 
be remembered. Boys, I don't use that corner 
in the woods and they can live there as long as 
they please. I do not want any rent.' 

''They remained there for years and Uncle 
Billy Smith was not only kind to them, but had 
a fatherl}^ care over them and assisted them as 
long as he lived, and when he was gone and his 
will was probated, to the surprise of everybody 
the five acres of land on part of which the little 
house stood was willed to Atinie, wife of Ezra Houck, 

"So this is the way Ezra's house came to be 
on Billy Smith's land, and this is the way that 
the nerve, bravery and tears of a young mother 
procured for her and her's a little home for 
their whole lives." 

L.ofC. 



100 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I,BY 

CHAPTER XL 
The Great Toboggan. 

Mr. Pontus: "The Houcks also participated in 
what was perhaps the greatest toboggan ride ever 
known. 

"One winter we had about one foot of snow 
and it had the best staying qualities of any snow I 
ever saw in the Valley. After it had lain two or 
three days and became well settled the rain com- 
menced to fall and froze as fast as it touched 
the snow. It formed a substantial ice crust on 
the snow which was like ice except that it was 
somewhat rough, but it was so strong that a 
man could walk over it without danger of break- 
ing through. An3^one getting started on the ice 
would most likely go to the foot of the slope 
and would surely do so if the incline was steep. 
Sheep, calves and other live stock generally had 
rough experiences if they once stepped out of 
the beaten path, and while they were utterly 
helpless and could not regain their footing, while 
sliding over the crust, yet, usually they would not 
be injured, unless they came in contact with a 
tree or other permanent obstacle as they rushed 
along down grade. 

"To save stock from harm the farmers broke 
the crust across the hill below the stables so that 



the; great toboggan 101 

animals could get a foothold to stop on the 
hill-side and then follow the path to safety. It 
was not an unusual scene during the week that 
this crust remained to see men and boys coming 
down the hills on the crust. The}^ would pro- 
gress nicely as long as they could keep their feet 
under them. There was a very high hill on the 
side of the Valley called Fisher's Knob, which 
had a very precipitous descent of several hundred 
feet and a more moderate slope below. The 
3^oungsters had ridden down this hill a few times 
in the snow prior to this time, but had had no 
experience on the surface of ice. 

"In the afternoon when the school children had 
just been released, two of the Houck boys and 
two others selected a sawed plank, twelve feet 
long, twelve inches wide, and having shaped it at 
the front end after the fashion of a sled runner, 
trailed it along the path to the top of the hill 
and soon the crowd below was surprised to see 
the four boys come over the bluff at break-neck 
speed. 

"Their toboggan plank ran true and the}' all 
kept their places and came to the foot of the 
hill floundering into a snow bank twenty feet 
high that had collected at the foot of the hill. 
The successful trip and the whoop of triumph 
that went out on the winter air as they 
dashed into the snow drift seemed to drive the 



102 I^KGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^LEY 

crowd wild instantaneously. Half an hundred of 
boys and girls, the number of boys predominat- 
ing, sought the lumber pile, and selecting a wide 
plank for each four of them started traihng them 
for the top of the great bluff that loomed up 
against the sk}^ before them. At length they 
were scattered along the top of the bluff, looking 
like an army of scullers ready to make an inter- 
national race or perhaps more like making a 
charge on the people who stood at the foot of 
the hill. 

"The 'Go' was heard ringing from the hill-top 
and the next moment they were approaching the 
bluff. Soon one plank seemed to strike some 
obstruction and commenced whirling round and 
round as it came down. It soon knocked against 
its neighbor and drove it out of line and it in 
turn knocked others, and so the disorder con- 
tinued. 

"The boys and girls lost their hold on their 
respective planks and they were scattered here 
and there over the icy hill and all came furi- 
ously on. The farther they came the greater 
their speed. They had neither power to slow 
up or stop. Boys here and girls there, and 
now boys and girls mixed up in the furious 
drive and many of the planks came rushing 
on with no one near them and cutting all 
kinds of circles. One boy stuck his heel into 



THE GRKAT TOBOGGAN 103 

the crust to stop, but was dashed forward on 
his head, which broke through the crust, cut- 
ting his ears partly off, from which the blood 
ran down freely. All the girls were scream- 
ing and some of the boys calling for help, 
many of them crying from their injuries and 
fright. But however much they were fright- 
ened or injured they could do nothing but 
come on. The girls clutched hold of any per- 
son or anything within reach, and if they once 
secured a hold they stuck right there to 'the 
last wag of the hammer and the last roll of 
the drum.' One girl sat on the head of one of 
the boys and scraped his face to the quick. 
Another girl was forced squarely astride of a big 
boy and thus came on. The next moment they 
all whirled into the snow drift with an indescrib- 
able and tremendous swirl. The snow flew twenty 
feet high and the cries of the crowd was some- 
thing appalling. 

"The crowd of onlookers rushed in to assist 
the buried tobogganers out of the snow and 
carried them out one by one. 

"Ears were cut, scraped and bruised, arms and 
fingers broken, eyes and faces scraped and 
bruised and the blood was simply scrubbed out of 
the faces of several of them and the clothes 
torn beyond all hope of repair. 

"Men, girls, boys, planks, wraps, hats and snow 



104 I^EGKNDS OF LOST RIVKR VAIvI^EY 

in one confused and indescribable jumble. Both 
the spectators and the participants were fright- 
ened. A doctor was soon found who was busy for 
hours sewing up ears and gashes, setting dislo- 
cated fingers and broken arms and the mothers 
busied themselves washing and dressing the boys 
and girls and applying ointments, liniments and 
lotions. 

''The tobogganers had underrated the speed of 
their vehicles. They had misjudged the speed to 
be gained by the steep incline. They had failed 
to estimate the smoothness of the snow crust. 
One little fellow who had been through the worst 
of the trip said: 'It was a dandy ride all right, 
but we couldn't stop when we got enough of it.' 

"No one was killed or permanently injured, but 
the way they spread out on the hill-top to start, 
the way they all started with shouts of joy, the 
wa}^ they all were jumbled together, the way 
they were whirled and knocked about as they 
came down, the way the big planks jammed and 
battered about among the helpless boys and girls 
the way they were frightened and screamed and 
cried, the way they all rushed furiously on and 
no part of either the toboggans or the riders 
could stop and the grand swoop with which they 
whirled into that snow drjft are things to be re- 
membered. For years afterward it could be 
heard that that gentleman or that lady ^was one 



THE GREAT TOBOGGAN 105 

of the party that tobogganed over Fisher''s Knob 
on the crust on the big snow. Jack said that 
Emily sat on him all the way and ground and 
pressed his side down on the crust so that his 
ribs would not have made good spare ribs for a 
month afterward. 

'^Bessie was kicked by the boot of some gal- 
lant comrade so that she had the 'mumps' for 
a month and Sam insisted that gentle Annie had 
stuck her heel in his mouth and it was no de- 
licate French heel either. And Gertie said she 
was so smothered in the snow^ that she was un- 
conscious for a moment and when she 'came to' 
the first thing she heard was Jim yelling 'Twenty 
minutes for supper!' 

"Now we will let Fannie tell her experience 
in her own way: 

" 'Jack brought his dog with him as usual. 
The pup's name was "Dingbats," but Jack, in 
the multitude of his duties, did not have time 
to speak the entire name, so he called him 
"Ding." He was a young bull dog and would 
catch the end of a rope and hold on while 
Jack would swing him around in the air a 
dozen times and whenever the dog saw a rope 
he would jump for it. When we started at the 
top of the hill the noise and excitement put the 
pup on the lookout for something to do. He 
spied the rope fastened to the plank I was on, 



106 IvEGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I.EY 

and as the plank moved off he made a lunge 
and caught the rope. 

'< 'He was going cross-ways when he caught it 
and his weight and impetus turned the plank out 
of its course and it soon came in contact with 
another plank and changed its course, but "Ding" 
held right on until we had gone over the bluff, 
when the excitement was so great that he had 
to bark. His rope was gone and he could not 
get it again. At this moment I came near the 
dog and he caught hold of the bottom of my 
skirt with a never-let-go grip. I screamed when 
the dog took hold on me, but I could do noth- 
ing but go right on. The dog had learned a lesson 
by having the rope jerked from him and now he 
held on "for keeps." He was not frightened or 
displeased in the least, but found himself in the 
very midst of the most exciting and enjoyable pic- 
nic in which he had ever participated. Sliding on 
the crust did not hurt him a particle. He was 
accustomed to rough experiences and this was 
exactly to his liking. 1 never lost "Ding," or 
rather he never lost me, until we were smother- 
ing in the snow drift. We both survived. When 
"Ding" took hold of me I was so mad I could 
have killed him, but I could not kill him or my- 
self either then, but when it was all over I real- 
ized that I had a great affection for "Ding" and 
always carressed him whenever I would see him. 



THE GRKAT TOBOGGAN 107 

"Ding" performed his part of the ride perhaps 
better than any one and I am sure he enjoyed it 
much more than any one of our number.' 

"Flossy's story: 'Now, I will tell you. The 
hill was all clear when we passed up and around 
the knob, but when we came over the knoll, on 
our way down, there was a one year old calf 
standing in our way. It had stepped on the 
crust and had slid over the bluff and had caught 
its sharp foot in a break in the crust which was 
made by some large weeds blowing back and 
forth while the rain was falling. There it stood, 
afraid to take another step. We had already been 
knocked .off our planks, and Betsey and I were 
rushing along about three feet apart reaching 
every way for something to hold to, but could 
reach nothing. Betsey shot right through under 
the calf and 'never touched him;' as I passed I 
caught the calf by the tail and my weight and 
speed jerked the calf away from the slot in 
which it held its foot. Then away we went, 
the calf sprawling every way but sliding at great 
speed and me holding to its tail. I did not dare 
to let go as I knew I could get hold of nothing 
else. We rushed on at the most maddening rate 
till we all wound up in the snow drift. The calf, 
the planks, the boys, girls and myself in one gen- 
eral struggle to get out of the snow drift alive. 
The calf preceded me into the snow drift and 



108 LEGENDS OF LOST RIVER VAI^IyEY 

when I came upon it, it kicked me out of the 
snow, which prevented me from being suffocated 
like others were. I made my father buy that calf 
and I have it now. It is now a venerable mother 
cow, and I can always see that she has a most 
amiable countenance and smiles sweetly when I 
mention our trip over Fisher's Knob. This trip 
was part of — 

" 'The smiles and tears 
Of boyhood's years,' 

in which the girls unintentionally took an impor- 
tant part.' " 



COURTS IN KARI.Y TIMKS 109 



CHAPTER XII. 
The Courts in the Early Times. 

"The courts first established in this state were 
good enough, and generally administered the law 
with even-handed justice to the people. The 
judges were honest men and in dealing with the 
landed interests of the people, were generally just 
and fair to all litigants. But it must be admitted 
that they were not educated, in the law, as legal 
education is now understood among lawyers and 
judges and as is required by the law colleges. 
In other words, where education was lacking, 
good common sense served to guide the mind of 
the court to do justice to all parties, and now if 
I had to have my case tried by a judge, and 
had my choice to have one who was well edu- 
cated in the law and did not have good common 
sense of justice, or one who had little education, 
but had the old-fashfoned good mother wit and 
gpod horse sense, I would prefer the latter. I 
knew a judge whose education was exceedingly 
limited and who was, as the bar expressed it, *no 
lawyer,' and yet I have heard the same lawyers 
who thus passed this careless judgment on him 
say that somehow and in some way he managed 
to make decisions that were almost universally 
sustained by the Supreme Court. 



110 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.T.EY 

"I took occasion one day when at court to talk 
with the judge as to the great trouble he must 
have in rendering so many judgments, in so many 
different cases, and keep them all right. He re- 
plied, 'my friend, it is not so hard as you suppose. 
When I hear good lawyers on both sides of the 
case I can always see the very right of the matter. 
Good lawyers always make cases clear to me, 
but I will tell you where I get into the fog — 
and that is when I have a good clear-headed, 
well prepared lawyer on one side, and a fool on 
the other. Then it is hard to prevent leaning 
toward the weak side and helping that side out, 
which a judge should not do except to prevent 
injustice being done.' 

"I like to attend court and found that in the 
midst of the adjustment of the serious difficulties 
between litigants, there were many occurrences 
that smack of the ridiculous so much that I was 
greatly amused. 

The "The court house stood near the low 

Cow ground in the valley of Lost River and 
Case. the pools and wet ground were alive 
with great frogs who combined their vocal powers 
to run a frog chorus all night. And the crows 
were also very plentiful, and in case a dead 
animal was left in the swamp the crows would 
gather about and have a regular banquet over the 



COURTS IN EARI^Y TIMKS 111 

remains. One day when court convened a replevin 
suit for a cow was the first case called. The 
jury had been agreed on, and evidence heard for 
half an hour, when the Judge remarked that he 
had listened very attentively to the evidence but 
did not as yet understand which party to the suit 
had possession of the cow. 

"At this point Mr. Huey, who had been a 
preacher for years, and then turned lawyer, arose 
with much dignity and said: 'If the court please, 
the cow in controversy in the suit has long since 
departed this life, the crows of Lost River Valley 
have long since banqueted upon her carcass, and 
the frogs of Lost River swamps have long since 
sung her requiem.' Thus the court ascertained 
that the cow was dead and the parties were fight- 
ing on to ascertain who should pay the costs. 

The ''The sheriff reported to the court that 

Standing a witness had been subpoenaed to come 
Invitation, to court and had not come — and he 
desired an attachment to bring the defaulting 
witness into court. The writ was issued and the 
next day the sheriff stated to the court that he 
had the defaulting witness in court, and thereupon 
produced the witness before the court. The Judge 
asked to see the papers in the case, and was 
handed an indictment against the witness for 
grand larceny. The Judge said, 'Wh}^ this 



112 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAIvLEY 

man appears to be a defendant instead of a 
witness,' and turning to the man said, 'Why 
were you not here to attend your trial?' The 
defendant was a great, tall, old man, with long 
straight hair; he stretched up to his full height and 
said, 'Mr. Judge, I did not know that I had an 
invitation to come, or I would have been here.' 
The Judge said, 'you can understand right now, 
that as long as you are indicted for stealing thir- 
teen hogs, that you have a standing invitation to 
attend this court from day to day, and term to 
term until your case is disposed of.' One of the 
lawyers, who tried criminal cases frequently during 
the term of court, referred to the defendant as 
one of those who had a 'standing invitation' to at- 
tend the criminal court at every term. 

Witness "A suit was on trial to recover from 

Thompson, the railroad company for killing five 
cows of the plaintiff, when Mr. Thompson was 
called to testify for plaintiff, and stated that he 
saw the locomotive run over the cows and kill 
them, and then it whistled. The opposing counsel 
then took the witness and asked him very sharpl}^, 
'now, Mr. Thompson, will you tell us what that 
locomotive was whistling for after it had killed the 
cows?' Thompson replied in a slow stuttering 
way, 'that I doesn't know for certain, but 1 tell 
you what I think — I think that engine was whistling 



COURTS IN KARIvY TiMEvS 113 

for more cows.' This raised a tremendous laugh 
in court during which Mr. Thompson was excused 
from the witness stand. 

Repartee "Lawyer Dutton was ver}^ old, fat 
IN and short of breath. He would talk 

Court. a few minutes, then stop to breathe a 

spell — then go on with his speech. One day he 
had spoken some time, making his usual pauses. 
The opposing counsel replied by saying that nhe 
gentleman, who had just spoken, reminded him of 
Abe Lincoln's steamboat on the Sangamon River. 
The whistle of the boat being useless, the}^ at- 
tached an old saw mill whistle to the boat. The 
whistle was so large, and the boat so . small, that 
it required all of its steam to blow the whistle, 
so the boat could not run when it whistled, 
and could not whistle when it run' — here Lawyer 
Dutton retorted, that he admitted that the gen- 
tleman could both run and whistle — ^during the 
war he had run so fast that he could not stop 
till he reached home, and since that time he had 
spent his time whistling young turkeys in out of 
the rain — and that he had never gained a suit in 
his life, except the one he had stolen from the 
sheriff. Here his breath gave out, and during 
the cessation of hostilities the court ordered that 
the counsel should confine themselves moj'e closely 
to the evidence. 



114 I.KGKNDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI^I^EY 

The *'A case came on for trial against 

losEAMUs a doctor who is said to have ne- 
PiLL. glected Mrs. Cross, who had been his 

patient. The Doctor presumed that he was the 
only one in court who knew anything about the 
names of medicines, and when asked what medi- 
cines he had administered to the lady he replied 
that he had given her pills, and when asked 
what kind of pills, he said, 'loseamus pills'. 
'What is that?', said the old Judge. 'loseamus 
pills, may it please the court,' said the doctor. 
The Judge said, 'Doctor, you may tell me the 
medicines which formed the ingredients of those 
pills.' The doctor looked about for a moment 
and then said, 'Judge, the medicines all have 
Latin and Greek names, and there is no use of 
telling you, as you would not understand them.' 
This raised a general laugh at the Judge's ex- 
pense. 

The "There was a remnant of Indians left 

Witch, when the Shawnees left this country and 
two young Indian men were indicted for killing 
an old Indian woman. At the trial it was fully 
proved that the two men tied the old woman 
with hickory bark to a tree and beat her to 
death. The defense set up on the trial was,, 
that they believed the old woman to be a witch 
and therefore ought to be killed, and thereupon 



COURTS IN EARI.Y TiMRS 115 

they proceeded to perform their duty and killed 
her. The Judge had no patience with such a 
defense and instructed the jury accordingly. The 
jury promptly returned a verdict of not guilty, 
and when asked by the Judge why they did so, 
stated that the defendants had killed the old woman 
without doubt, but that the}^ did not think it right 
to punish Indians by laws made by white men. 
The Judge told them that law was established for 
the protection and government of everybody, be 
he an Indian or a Hotentot, and if the jury could 
not understand that, that they were unfit and in- 
competent to act as jurors, and that they were all 
discharged and could now go home. 

The "During the trial of a case, the Judge 

Joke, (who was known as a great joker) had 
ruled out certain testimony and instructed the at- 
torney not to comment on that particular evidence, 
as it was not in the case. The attorney, to- 
ward the close of his speech, spoke to the jury 
of that evidence, the same as if nothing had been 
said by the court. The court said: 'Mr. Alden, 
I forbade you commenting on that evidence as it 
was ruled out, and I now fine 3'ou five dollars for 
contempt of court for your action in this matter.' 
Mr. Alden never turned around, but kept looking 
at the jury a moment and then said, 'Gentlemen, 
I did not hear the joke that the judge just gave 



116 IvEGENDS OF I,OST RIVKR VAI.I,EY 

US, but as his jokes are always good, it is per- 
fectly safe for us to laugh,' so the jury and the 
crowd broke out in loud laughter, and the Judge 
listened a moment, then laughed too, and that was 
the end of the joke. 

Bound "Lawyer Barnes was addressing the 
TO jury and making many violent gestures 

Win. when a cuff came off and he threw it 
on the table and continued. Soon his other cuff 
became loose and he threw it on the table and 
contyiued. In the course of a few minutes his 
shirt collar was off at one side, and the end of 
it was prodding him under the chin when he 
spoke. He stopped and said: 'Gentlemen of the 
jury, one cuff came off and I continued, the other 
came off but 1 did not mind that, but now my 
collar has come off and I throw it down. Now 
I do not intend to allow these things to interfere 
with my argument, I am going right on and I 
am going to win this case if I have to take my 
whole shirt off to do it.' This raised a tremen- 
dous uproar in court and Mr. Barnes won his 
case. 

Edwards "In a land case, involving twenty 
Won the thousand dollars, and in which seven 
Game. lawyers were interested, the Judge had 

been annoyed by the delay in paying the money. 



COURTS IN EARI.Y TIMES 117 

The parties owing it asked for thirty days' time 
in which to pay it, and the Judge repHed, 'No, it 
is now twelve o'clock and I am going to lunch, 
and I want that money to be in the hands of the 
clerk when I get back.' The money was paid to 
the clerk, and Mr. Edwards, attorney for plaintiff, 
demanded the money of the clerk at once and it 
was paid to him in a certified check. Mr. Ed- 
wards then walked into the court room and the 
seven lawyers were each writing, as if his life 
depended upon it. Mr. Edwards asked Lawyer 
Yerger why they were all writing so. Yerger 
says, 'They are bringing seven attachment suits to 
tie up that money in the hands of the clerk and 
you'll not get a dollar of it. Mr. Edwards said, 
'Why I already have the money, in a certified 
check, in my pocket,' and showed him the check. 
Mr. Yerger then walked into the room where they 
were all writing and' said, 'Hold on, gentlemen, 
stop writing, it is all over, Mr. Edwards has 
"taken the pot." ' 

The "During the call of the criminal docket 

Friendless a case was called against Dora Field, 
Girl. charged with setting fire to Mr. San- 

ford's house. The Sanfords were very rich, and 
four brothers of them and the wives of all the 
brothers came to court, each of them there to 
testify against Dora. When the case was ready 



118 I.KGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I,B;y 

the girl (about fifteen years of age) was brought 
from the county jail, pale, scared, and not well 
dressed. She had no father, mother, relative or 
friend who would come to befriend her. The 
old Judge looked over the counsel and witnesses 
and influential force against her, and asked her 
if she had a lawyer, if she had parents, etc. He 
then said he would appoint an attorney to defend 
her, and looked about the room. Mr. Taylor, 
the ablest lawyer belonging to that bar, arose 
and said: 'If your Honor please, I see this child 
is alone and friendless and I volunteer my services 
as her attorney in this case.' The Judge thanked 
him, and said it afforded him great pleasure to 
know that one who had neither money or friends 
could have able counsel to see that justice was 
done. 

"The trial proceeded at once, and it was 'a tug 
of war' from start to finish. The Sanfords with 
their wealth, influence, attorneys, and so many of 
them, combined their efforts to convict the girl, 
but every single inch of the ground was fought 
over, step by step, and when the time for the 
argument came Mr. Taylor drew word paintings 
of the Sanford clan arrayed against a helpless 
child of such tender years. He demanded that 
the jury would allow every reasonable doubt in 
her 'favor, and made a defense for her that could 
not have been better if she had been the daughter 



COURTS IN EARIyY TIMES 119 

of a millionaire. The jury, after much deliberation, 
found the girl not guilty, and Mr. Taylor took 
her by the hand and walked out of the court- 
room in triumph. He then called some of the 
best ladies in the town to his office and advised 
with them as to where she should be sent to 
school, and she was sent away to boarding school 
and Mr. Taylor paid her expenses at school for 
four years, and she entered upon her young life 
with good schooling and under most promising sur- 
roundings. She had one friend who was moved to 
befriend her because of her forsaken, desolate 
and helpless circumstances, which appealed strongly 
to his great heart. 

Kept His "A colored witness was being 

Agreement, examined in a mule stealing case. 
He had turned state's evidence, and agreed to 
tell the whole truth if allowed to go free. 

"He told a long story, putting the blame on 
everybody but himself, and when he seemed to 
have finished his statement the attorney for the 
state asked him if he had told the whole truth 
about this matter. He replied, 'Yes, sir; I have 
told the whole truth, and if anything a little the 
rise of it.' With this statement he left the witness 
stand, conscious that he had kept his promise be- 
yond all question. 



120 IvKGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

Peculiar "Six men were indicted for grand 
Verdict, larceny, and the evidence showed that 
they had killed six big, fatted hogs, and had 
buried them in a hole in the ground, and covered 
them with brush, leaves and snow. The plan 
was to keep the hogs there during a cold spell 
of weather, and go at night and get what meat 
they might want, but they were found out, and 
all arrested. They were indicted for grand larceny, 
and the evidence sustained that charge. The 
jury went out, and returned a verdict of, 'We, 
the jury, find all the defendants guilty of malicious 
mischief.' Nothing having been said in the papers 
or the evidence about malicious mischief, the ver- 
dict was a great surprise, and the attorney for 
the defendants jumped up, saying, 'The jury 
can't do that — can't do anything of the kind.' 
The Judge asked the attorney if he had heard 
the story of the man, in the stocks, for getting 
drunk; the attorney had not heard the stor}^, so 
the Judge told it. 'His friend coming along and 
seeing him there, said, "they can't do that — no sir, 
can't never do it;" the fellow in the stocks says, 
"the h — the}^ can't, I am here." That is the 
way with your verdict, the jury have found them 
guilty, whether the}- can do so or not; as the 
punishment for grand larceny is imprisonment in 
the penitentiary and that for malicious mischief is 
six months confinement in the county jail, I would 



COURTS IN KARLY TIMES 121 

let the other fellow move to set the verdict 
aside.' No motion to set aside the verdict v^as 
ever made, and the six men w^ere sent to jail 
six months each for malicious mischief. 

Ohio Mutton ''A case called for trial against 

With an Bob Ross for larceny of two 

Indiana Flavor, sheep. The case made by the 
state seemed well proved. It appeared that the 
sheep pastured in a field bordering the Ohio state 
line, and that Ross removed two rails from the 
fence, and when the sheep came through he 
killed two of them and drove the others back, 
and carried the mutton away, and was therefore 
guilty of grand larceny. Then the defense put in 
their evidence, that Ross resided in Ohio; that he 
did not touch the sheep until after they crept 
through the fence, into Ohio; that he could not 
be convicted of larceny against the laws of In- 
diana without being in that state; that if any 
crime was committed it was clearly a crime 
against the laws of Ohio. The Judge became 
quite serious in the consideration of this defense, 
and instructed the jur}^ that if the}' believed from 
the evidence, that no violation of the laws of In- 
diana, within the territory of that state, had been 
committed, they must find the defendant not guilty, 
which the jury proceeded to do, and Ross was 
thereupon discharged, whereupon Ross said it had 



122 I.EGENDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI.I,KY 

now been judicially determined that he was not 
guilty, but he would admit that the mutton was 
the best he had ever tasted in his life, and that 
even now he had a lingering recollection that the 
mutton had a kind of Indiana flavor. 

Made Room For "When I attended court 

"The Gentleman." there was but one hotel in 
the place, and it was one of the fiercest hotels I 
ever knew, so I found a comfortable boarding 
place where all the law3^ers stopped. There was 
a large room with a bed in each of the three 
corners, and each bed was occupied. When we 
had all retired Judge Handy and Colonel Single- 
ton came, and were accommodated by making a 
bed on the floor in the remaining empty corner, 
and we all went to sleep. Just then two young 
men came into the room in a noisy, drunken con- 
dition — one of them said to his comrade: 'Jim, 
turn in somewhere, I will sleep here (pointing to 
the bed on the floor).' Colonel Singleton raised 
up and denounced the two men as drunken 
blackguards — disturbing gentlemen — ^and ordered 
them peremptorily to leave the room. The man 
addressed acted as if he had not heard the col- 
onel's outburst and abuse, and said, coolly: 'Find a 
place, Jim, 1 will sleep here,' and as he spoke 
he drew a big revolver from one boot and a large, 
shining bowie knife from the other, and shoving 



COURTS IN EARI.Y TIMES 123 

the points of each at Colonel Singleton, saying: 
^Lie over.^ Great Scot! but the colonel jumped. 
He went straight up about two feet, and lighting 
on Judge Hand}^ saying in very earnest tones, 
'Judge, please lie over and make room /or this 
gentleman.'' 'The gentleman' did sleep there, and 
rested much better than the colonel and his friend. 

A "Squire" "Back in the low lands in the 

Who Was southern part of the county in a 

Equal to the place known as Coon's Corners, 
Emergency. they had a justice of the peace 

by the name of Burns. They tell many stories 
on him. 

"One day Jim Dugan came to Squire Burns 
and stated that he found a dead man in the 
swamp, and the squire went with him to the 
place. They found forty dollars and a big re- 
volver on the corpse. Dugan said: 'Squire, what's 
to do.^' The squire says: 'I'll fine him fifteen 
dollars for vagrancy, and fifteen dollars and con- 
fiscate his revolver for carrying concealed weapons, 
and for the remaining ten dollars we will give 
the poor fellow a decent burial in this ditch, which 
they did, and everything having been judiciously 
adjusted and accounts squared they returned home 
and said no more about it. 



124 IvEGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

*He 'Rose "During the war I had charge of a 

With the large boat that carried supplies to 
Occasion. the army, and soon after the northern 
army captured Vicksburg I ran in there with sup- 
plies, and while detained there I spent my time 
about the old Washington Hotel. 

"One morning Mr. Drew, a gentleman from New 
York, came to the hotel very much excited. His 
cotton had been seized by the government. He 
had been down the river buying cotton for some 
weeks, and as soon as Vicksburg was taken came 
in there with three great scow boats, each loaded 
to the water's edge and away up twelve or fifteen 
feet with cotton bales. The cotton was worth about 
two hundred thousand dollars. 

"There was at the hotel at that time a little 
lawyer from Dayton, Ohio, by the name of Ike 
Houston. He had a little practice at home and 
received a fee of five or ten dollars for trying a 
case. Mr. Drew was telling about his cotton being 
seized, and was in the gravest trouble as to the 
result. Houston said: 'Why, I can get your cotton 
released. I know the provost marshal. Why, he 
is from Da3'ton, Ohio.' Mr. Drew was greatly 
interested, and asked Houston to try to get it re- 
leased. Houston went off to see the provost 
marshal and told him that Mr. Drew owned the 
cotton; that he was from New York, and was as 
loyal as any of us, and the cotton should be re- 



COURTS IN EARLY TIMES 125 

leased, and soon procured an order releasing the 
cotton and returned with the order. In the mean- 
time Mr. Drew had gone to see his cotton. 
Houston said to us that he thought he ought to 
charge Mr. Drew fifty dollars for that job. We 
all said, 'Ike, make it a hundred. It is all right; 
make it a hundred.' Houston did not think he 
would stand it, but he would charge him fifty 
dollars anyw^ay. Just then in came Mr. Drew, 
and Houston said: 'I got the order; your cotton 
is released.' Mr. Drew said: 'Let me see, sure 
enough you have, thanks,' and pulled out a money 
wallet and commenced laying one-hundred-dollar 
bills on Houston's hand. Houston looked silly for 
a moment and then stiffened up his hand, and as 
the bills came he raised up and stuck out his 
chest and kept on ^swelling' np^ until there were 
twenty one-hundred-dollar bills in his hand when 
Mr. Drew stopped and said: 'I suppose that is 
satisfactor3^' Houston raised up a little more, 
and looked very important and said: 'Well, just 
put on two more of those new fellows there and 
it will be all right.' He got the two more and Mr. 
Drew left for his boats with the order. Captain 
Davis, who saw it all, said : 'By jove, boys, I 
think more of Ike than ever before. The way 
he 'rose with the occasion was simply suhlime.'^ 



126 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAIvI^EY 

Knew "A Muly" <'A colored man had 

When He Saw It. stolen a cow and to pre- 
vent her being identified had cut off her ears. 
He was being tried in the Criminal Court for the 
theft, and Mr. Morgan, who purchased the cow 
of the thief, was called as a witness, when the 
following occurred: 

"State's Attorney: 'Did you purchase a cow of 
the defendant, and if so, when?' 

''Mr. Morgan: 'Yes, sir, I did, last July.' 

"Question: 'What kind of a cow was it?' 

"Answer: 'I can not remember.' 

"Question: 'What color was she?' 

"Answer: 'I can not remember, but I think 
she was a brindle.' 

"Question: 'Did she have any peculiarity in 
her appearance?' 

"Answer: 'No, sir, not as I recollect.' 

"Question: 'How did she appear when you 
looked her in the face?' 

"Answer: 'When as I now recollect her, she 
had a very amiable countenance.' 

"Question: 'Don't you recollect something pecu- 
liar about her head, horns or ears?' 

"Answer: 'No, sir.' 

"Question: 'Mr. Morgan, as a matter of fact 
were not both of that cow's ears cut off close up 
to her head?' 

"Answer: 'No, sir, it could not have been so, 



COURTS IN EARI.Y TIMES 127 

as there is one thing I am certain of, that I 
know ''« ///?//y" when I see it.' 

Lost "I read somewhere a good 

Eloquence, court story. Lawyer Bragg was 
very large, very eloquent and spoke very loud. 
He closed his argument with tremendous effect. 
When the sound had died away, his opponent, 
who was a little wizzen-faced fellow, arose and 
said: 'Gentlemen, I am reminded of an old 
fable: You will remember how the lion and the 
ass agreed to slay the beasts of the field and 
divide the spoil. The ass was to go into the 
thicket and bray and frighten the animals out, 
while the lion was to lie in wait and kill the 
fugitives as they appeared. The ass sought the 
darkest part of the jungle, and, hfting up his 
awful voice, brayed, and brayed, and bra3^ed. 
The ass was quite intoxicated with his uproar, and 
thought he'd return and see what the lion thought 
of it. With a light heart he went back and 
found the lion looking doubtfully about him.' 

" 'What do you think of that.^' said the ex- 
ultant ass. 'Do you think I scared 'em?' 

" 'Scared 'em?' repeated the lion, in an agi- 
tated tone. 'Why you'd a scared me if I didn't 
know you were a jackass.' 

"The jury, the court and the audience joined 
in laughter at the expense of the eloquent Mr. 
Bragg. 



128 I.KGENDS OF I.OST RIVKR VAI.I,KY 

Judge "Judge Henry was quite old and 

Henry. very nervous. Lawyer Sharp was 
very peculiar and was sometimes very quiet in 
argument, and the next moment very shrill and 
thrilling. 

"One warm afternoon, while Sharp was making 
an argument to the jury, everything was quiet 
and Judge Henry was reading a newspaper, held 
up high before his face. Mr. Sharp was talking 
to the jury almost in a whisper, when he sud- 
denly yelled, 'Mark ye,' in his highest and most 
piercing yell. The old judge was so shocked 
that his hands jerked, tearing the newspaper open 
in the middle, and the Judge's sharp face came 
right through the opening in the paper and looked 
here and there to see what had happened. The 
crowd in the court room broke out in a general 
laugh, in which lawyers and jury joined heartily. 

A "I heard of a Chinaman being 

Competent called as a witness, when the 

Witness. objection was made that he was 

incompetent because he did not understand the 
nature of an oath. 

"The Judge said: 'John, if you are sworn as a 
witness and should then tell a lie what would 
happen?' 

'John promptly answered: 'Me go to Hellee 
same as Melican man.' 



COURTS IN KARI.Y TIMES 129 

<'The Judge said 'he understands our language 
and appreciates the scope and purpose of our 
leading institution. He is entirely competent.' 

His Principles "At the cross roads, beyond 

WERE Pliable, the hills on the east side of 
the river, old man Martin run a grocery, and 
sold drinks somewhat on the 'blind pig' style. 
He was a great church man, paid to its sup- 
port and was very popular with the church 
people. He had a colored man, named Sam, 
who was his all around confidential man about 
the store. 

"One foggy, damp morning neighbor Forbes 
rode up early and unobserved and was hitching 
his horse at the store, when Martin came out of 
his house on the side next to the store, when the 



fol 



owing occurred: 

'Martin: 'Hello, Sam.' 

'Sam: 'Yes, sir.' 

'Martin: 'Have you sanded the sugar?' 

'Sam: 'Yes, sir.' 

'Martin: 'Have you chalked the milk?' 

'Sam: 'Yes, sir.' 

'Martin: 'Have you watered the whiskey?' 

'Sam: 'Yes, sir.' 

'Martin: 'All right, come in to prayers.' 



130 I^EGENDS OF LOST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

Walter's "In our school, in the early times, 
Oration. we had essays and speeches by the 
boys. Walter Bradley, when called upon, spoke 
on this wise: 

" 'We know we all expected a good time on 
Christmas. I expected that too and started out 
to have it. I had gone but a short way when 
two large dogs met at my feet and commenced 
fighting. They fought over me and under me till 
I concluded both of them were about to eat me 
up, or down, which was all the same to me. 

" 'To get away from them, I ran across be- 
hind a grocery wagon, which came around the 
corner. A small rope caught me and then a bob 
sled jerked my feet from under me and left 
me looking at the stars. When I had my shins 
repaired I started across the street, where some 
horses and three wagons were in a collision, and 
several persons, including myself, were almost 
frightened into fits, and the only reason we were 
not caught in the tangle was because they were 
all so mixed up that they would not accommo- 
date me by taking me in. 

" '1 escaped and started on a run for school, 
but slipped on the ice and my nose was much 
shorter than usual when I got up. The blood 
spread all over my face and my clothes and 
a policeman arrested me, but he did not know 
what for, neither did I. So we both let each 



COURTS IN EARI.Y TIMES 131 

Other go, and as I rushed into the school- 
room I met my sweetheart. She fainted dead 
away, and has not come to yet. So there you 
are, and please excuse me. It may be that 
V — by this time he was gone and nothing 
more was heard of him or his speech. 

Economical "Two of my neighbors were ex- 
IN ceedingly economical, and were so 

Words. in conversation as well as every- 

thing else. One morning they met on the street, 
when the following occurred: 

"Cy: 'Good morning, Zeb.' 

"Zeb: 'Good morning, Cy.' 

"Cy: 'Zeb, what did you give your horse 
when he had the colic?' 

"Zeb: 'Turpentine.' 

"Cy: 'Good morning, Zeb.' 

"Zeb: 'Good morning, Cy.' 

"Five days later they met again, when the 
following occurred: 

"Cy: 'Good morning, Zeb.' 

"Zeb: 'Good morning, Cy.' 

"Cy : 'Zeb, what did you say you gave your horse ?' 

"Zeb: 'Turpentine.' 

"Cy: 'Well, I gave mine that and it killed him.' 

"Zeb: 'Well, it killed mine, too.' 

"Cy: 'Morning, Zeb.' 

"Zeb: 'Morning, Cy.' 

"A decided coolness prevailed between them for 
some time. 



132 I.KGRNDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

The Major "Major Blossom was standing 

Came to Town, on the porch of the hotel dis- 
playing a new watch and chain which he had 
just purchased, when a newsboy rushed up with, 
'Morning paper. Major.' 

"Major: 'No, don't bother me.' 

"Boy: 'Ah, you just have a paper, Major.' 

"Major: 'No, go away, I tell you." 

"Boy: 'Why, Major, better buy one.' 

"Major: 'Get out, I tell you (starting toward 
him).' 

"The boy walked away about fifteen feet and 
said: 'Major, what time is it, please?' 

"The Major looked at the boy, and then at 
his watch, and said: 'It is just two o'clock.' 

"The boy walked forward a few steps and 
said: 'Major, it is now two, and just at fifteen 
minutes after two you can go to hell.' 

"The Major made for the boy and away 
they went down street at a furious rate, when 
they met Col. Jones, who said: 'Hello, Major, 
what is the trouble?' 

"Major: 'Why, sir, that little devil told me to 
go to hell in fifteen minutes.' 

"Jones: 'Ah, well, Major, don't rush, you have 
plenty of time, you will make it eas}' without so 
much exertion.' 

"The Major 'slowed up' and returned to the 
hotel." 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPKECH 133 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Jim Cummings' Speech. 

Mr. Benton: "How were political contests long 
years ago.^" 

Mr. Pontus: ''When you mention politics the 
most distinct recollection I have on that subject 
was the speeches made by the candidates. 

"We had a lively fellow in our community 
who was a great politician. He would run for 
office now and then. He would preside at public 
meetings and his remarks and speeches were quaint 
and very effective. He was speaking at a meet- 
ing called in this neighborhood when he was a 
candidate for sheriff. He looked over the audience 
and seeing Mr. Smith, who he understood to be 
against him as a candidate, said: 

" 'Now, there is Mr. Smith, he will vote for 
me to make up for a job he did for me ten 
years ago. 

" 'I employed him to build a big chunney out- 
side of my house. He finished the job and had 
an elaborate top looming away above the house. 
He then called me out to see the job and said: 
"Mr. Cummings there is a first-class job, a real 
work of art. There, sir, is a chimney that will 
last for you, your children and your grand-chil— ^ 
Look out, Cummings, there it comes!" and sure 



134 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAUEY 

enough we scarcely were out of the way when 
the work of art was spread out in a general 
wreck before us. I never told this story on 
Smith till now, and considering that work of art, 
and the amount of actual service I had out of 
that chimney, I claim that Smith should vote for 
me. Now, I will tell you another one on him.' 
Smith said: 'Hold on, Cummings, I will vote 
for you on the condition that you never tell that 
story on me again.' Cummings replied: 'Never 
again, Smith, never again — shake. [Applause.] 

" 'Now, gentlemen, I am satisfied of the sup- 
port of every voter here except Mr. Lutton, and 
he is a Democrat and I am a Whig. But now, 
Mr. Lutton, you must vote for me on the ground 
that one good turn deserves another. Now, sir, 
about twenty years ago you raised the best 
watermelons in the county, and while people 
generally paid no attention whatever to that fact 
and failed to show their appreciation of your supe- 
rior mode of gardening, I was more appreciative. 
I went again and again and stole your melons, 
and ate them, both in the woods at night and 
manywheres about your garden. And I testify 
right now and here to the superb quality of those 
melons; why, it seems to me that even now I 
have a lingering recollection of their delicious 
flavor. Ah, they were "r^r_y greats Now, although 
I have been somewhat slow in speaking of this. 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 135 

you ought to return the compliment and vote for 
me, and I am sure you will do so. [Great 
laughter.] 

"At this point Mr. Lutton arose and said: 'AH 
right, Jim, that watermelon argument is entirely 
conclusive. If you will tell of everything else you 
stole from me and agree not to steal any more 
I will pledge you my vote.' Jim replied: 'Well, 
I would like to tell you about the apples, the 
peaches and the strawberries, but I am afraid I 
would tire you gentlemen if I gave you the whole 
list. [Laughter.] 

" 'Now, gentlemen, I like to talk to a man 
who inclines to vote against me, because then I 
have something to do, and when I get him off 
the fence and he agrees to vote for me he is so 
happy he rolls on the grass like a "yaller" dog with 
pure unadulterated happiness. That shows he was 
an honest man — that's why I like him and like to 
get his vote. And whenever he commences to 
turn around with a two-year-old-colt look in his 
eye I am satisfied. 

" 'Of course, there are honest differences of 
opinion in these matters. 

" 'Ask a Bostonian and he will say their giVls 
are better educated than any others; ask Illi- 
noisans and they will say their girls have more 
brains and better health than others; ask the 
Southerners and they will say their daughters 



136 IvKGKNDS OF IvOST RIVKR VAl^IvEY 

are more accomplished than any others; ask a 
Kentuckian and he will say their girls are 'bred 
in old Kentucky' and that is all that need be 
said on the subject. The Kentuckians think as 
did a tombstone maker in Frankfort — 

" 'Mr. Jones died and his widow ordered a 
tombstone and furnished an inscription to be 
placed thereon. She called later to see the job 
when finished, and asked the tombstone artist 
wh}^ he had neglected to put the inscription on 
the stone. He said: "Because I will not put a lie 
on a tombstone for you or anyone else. You 
say he has gone to a better land than this, and 
I know, and everybody else knows, there is no 
better land than Kentucky, and never will be, so 
there is the reason and that is sufficient." 

" 'So I do not blame 3'ou for having your own 
ideas about things, but do not forget that indi- 
vidual preferences should always give way when 
the public good and the welfare of the whole 
people requires you to vote for the humble indi- 
vidual who now has the pleasure of addressing 
you. 

" 'Men may differ on side issues, which is all 
right, but when it comes to the great substratum 
fundamental principles they will agree.' 

" 'Deacon Bent was a Baptist and Mr. Lane 
was a great Methodist, and they always quar- 
relled over their religion. But Mr. Bent was 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 137 

sick and about to die when seeing Mr. Lane 
come in he said: "Lane, I am glad you came; 
I am going to die and I forgive you all you 
have said to me, and when the first train-load of 
the redeemed comes into Heaven I shall look for 
you on the front of the locomotive, and I will 
be ready to receive you." Lane says: "I forgive 
you all right, but, deacon, your are going to get 
well and not going to die now at all." The 
deacon said: "Well, Lane, in that case I will 
recall the forgiveness and we will fight it out." 
[Laughter.] 

" 'When you want to read poetry charged with 
pure, poetic fire, go to Ireland. When you want 
the best wine, go to Italy. When you want the 
best beer, go to Germany by way of Milwaukee. 
When you want the biggest trees and the big- 
gest pumpkins, go to California. When you want 
to see the best scenery, visit the royal canyons 
and the eternal masonry of our own great Rockies. 
When 3'ou wish the best styles, go to France. 
When you would see the finest horses, go to 
Kentucky; but if you want to see the prettiest 
girls and the best wives and mothers on God's 
green earth, you will find them in the great State 
of Indiana! [Long continued applause.] 

" 'Now, gentlemen, I dislike to tell you, but 
every one of these pretty girls, wives and mothers, 
with tears in their eyes will beg you to vote for 



138 I.KGENDS OF I.OST RiVER VAI^I^EY 

Jim Cummings for sheriff of Orange county. 
[Great laughter.] 

" 'Our great republic is composed of the most 
imposing galaxy of states to be found on the map 
of the globe. See them stretching from the Atlantic 
Sea on the east to the Pacific on the west, and 
from the mighty chain of lakes on the north to 
the islands of the sea on the south. The American 
eagle can leave his home among the great Rockies 
and visit the ice-bound mountains of Alaska, and 
then come south, viewing the great lakes, and 
passing down the valley of the Mississippi to the 
"land of flowers," and can go a night's travel 
along the southern gulf, and can see, "in the 
dawn's early light," that the flag planted by Old 
Hickory in 1814 is still there, affording a pano- 
rama of scenery unsurpassed on the face of the 
earth; also, a variety of climate unknown else- 
where, and the most productive soil and the 
greatest diversity of products that can be cata- 
logued by any nation in the world. And among 
all the great states of the Union, no one of 
them in general advantages surpasses the great 
State of Indiana, and no state equals her in the 
enterprise, intelligence and loyalty of her people. 
She is great, geographically; great in her lakes 
and rivers; great in her railroads and avenues of 
commerce; great in the production of her soil; 
great in her coal and stone; great in her lumber 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 139 

and manufactories; great in her schools, churches, 
colleges and other institutions of learning; great 
in her courts, her judges and her statesmen; 
great in her war record and in her history as a 
state, and especially and above all great in the 
intelligence, loyalty and patriotism of her common 
people. [Great applause and a voice — "Jim, you 
are great yourself."] 

" 'Yes, my friends, you may undertake to con- 
struct a bridge across Lake Michigan; you may 
try to bottle up enough of summer weather to 
keep us warm all winter; you may undertake 
to scare the Mississippi River out of her chan- 
nel and run her back to the frozen north; you 
ma}' undertake to count on your fingers the 
sparkling diamonds of the Heavens on a starry 
night; you may undertake to break a hurri- 
cane to harness and haul the mountains into 
the midst of the sea, but you never can esti- 
mate the future richness of our great prairie 
state. The future value of the pebbled beds of 
our rivers, the rock foundations of our hills and 
the subsoil of our golden prairies will baffle the 
estimation of even future generations. We can 
never measure the enterprise, courage and perse- 
verance of the stalwart men of Indiana, nor can 
we do justice to the goodness, courage and devo- 
tion of our wives and mothers. Their virtues, 
their grace and true womanliness is the purest 



140 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.IvKY 

and most sacred thank offering that we can ever 
tender in gratitude to Heaven. When you are 
over yonder and come to the gate keep your 
mothers, v^^ives and daughters in front of you and 
St. Peter will say, "Ladies and gentlemen from In- 
diana please walk in." (Laughter.) 

" 'The large buildings in the big cities of the 
Mississippi Valley are built with Indiana stone. 
The Kentucky whiskey is shipped in Indiana bar- 
rels. The cities are heated by Indiana coal and 
wood, and the health of the people from Cali- 
fornia to Maine is preserved by the healing waters 
of our great springs, and unfortunate inebriates, 
whose lives are blighted and their last hope gone, 
are saved, rejuvenated and given new health, 
strength, life and hope by drinking the waters 
of the Carlsbad Springs of Lost River Valley. 
[Great applause.] 

" 'In order to sustain the reputation of our great 
state, in order to have the business of this count}^ 
properly transacted, in order to do justice to 3^our- 
selves and your famihes vote according to your 
own best judgment, but do not for a single mo- 
ment forget that the speaker is a candidate for 
sheriff and that he will be elected, and do not fail 
to vote — all of 3^ou vote — vote early and vote for 
the best man and I am content. 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPKKCH 141 

Don't Talk Behind One's Back. 

*' 'My opponent says many unpleasant things of 
me, but they roll off into the filth where they find 
a congenial society. He has made so many ques- 
tionable statements during the campaign that he 
has grown reckless, and I fear by the end of the 
campaign he will not have a single mofal left in 
him. So accustomed have the people grown to 
disbelieve his statements that they would not be- 
lieve him if he would tell the truth. But I will 
not talk behind his back. That is not the proper 
thing to do, as shown by the experience of Mr. 
Rukenbrod. He had been out drinking until two 
o'clock in the morning, when he came home and 
crept into bed and turned his back toward his 
wife. She said: "You need not turn vour back, 
as you are drunk clear through." He said: "Mrs. 
Rukenbrod, I thought you were a lady." She re- 
plied: "I am a lady, and don't you say anything 
else." "Well," said he, "you may be a lady, but 
I never knew a lady to talk behind her husband's 
back." [Laughter.] 

" 'Now, gentlemen, I want to speak to you re- 
garding 

Our Courts and Judges. 

" 'In the old Roman times, soldiers, when enter- 
ing the service of the government, took the sacred 
oath — the sacramentum. 



142 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

" 'This is the word from which comes our word 
sacrament. Any violations of that oath was trait- 
orous and dishonorable as regards the man and 
disloyalty in the soldier. The duty resting on our 
judges is a sacred one. They are chosen because 
they are men of education, unspotted in character 
and learned in the law above their fellows in the 
legal profession. Being thus chosen by their fel- 
low-citizens they cannot fail to recognize the deep 
sense of moral duty and honor that rests upon 
them. Their oath of office is an additional obli- 
gation upon them, to strengthen their sense of 
justice and duty. Again, there is no call upon 
them to act dishonorably and no inducement to 
disgrace the place of honor which has been placed 
in their keeping. Then how can they violate their 
duty and fail to do what they believe to be right. 

" 'When one has been wronged the duty resting 
upon them is to redress the wrong done, and this 
undoubtedly gives unbounded pleasure, springing 
from the very act of correcting the wrong, I can 
not believe and do not believe our judges are 
bad men, and I think it wicked and wholly wrong 
to say that our judges are corrupt. It is a most 
iniquitous statement. Not one judge in a thou- 
sand is corrupt. Disrespectful remarks concern- 
ing our judges lowers the estimate of the people 
for them. 

" 'Our judges must be respected. They are 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 143 

above reproach. Any other course is unjust to 
them and equally unjust to ourselves. Our judges 
are our safeguards. They protect the weak and 
poor from wrong at the hands of the dishonest 
and powerful. They settle differences between us 
and prevent strife and useless controversies. The 
poor and helpless can draw near our courts with 
an abiding faith that they will be heard — their 
claims considered and their wrongs redressed. 

" 'We must select pure, good men for judges. 
Men that have the brains and sense to know 
what is right and the back bone to do their 
duty, and then to stand by the judges and 
protect them from unjust accusations. We 
should, to keep our courts pure, as the water 
from an unclean fountain must be tainted and 
unwholesome. Your vote makes our judges. It 
is your own act, so put the right men there, 
and then respect them and the position they hold. 
Never vote for an unfit candidate for judge. I 
am a Whig and expect Whig votes to elect me, 
but I would vote forty times for a Democrat, 
whom I know to be able and conscientious, 
before I would vote for a Whig who was un- 
worthy, dishonest and unfit for the place. IVe 
can not allow party prejiuiices or anything else to 
■piU the rights of the people i)i jeopardy and the 
poor and helpless in distress. This is a dut}' we 
can not disregard. If we disregard this dut}^ the 



144 I^KGKNDS OF LOST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

rights of widows and orphans will suffer. The 
rights of the people are jeopardized and the sta- 
bility of our government endangered. Rather than 
vote for judges who would truckle to the in- 
fluence of one man or any set of men and 
forget their duty to the people, let the court 
house be removed and let the plow-share turn 
the soil to raise an honest ear of corn for the 
poor. Rather than elect dishonest men as 
judges let the temple of justice be razed to its 
foundations and on its site let the rank weeds 
grow and nod their shameless heads in the 
winds. But never for once in your lives speak 
unjustly of the judges who are honest and do 
their duty to all the people and protect those 
who are unable to protect themselves. 

" 'Fellow citizens, I like Indiana because every 
citizen is rated at what he is really worth. 

" 'A brainless fop is not great because he 
was born of distinguished parents, but he must 
have metal of the true ring in him or he will 
never "ring" at all. "A calf is not a colt because 
it was born in a stable." Education, honest 
effort and individual worth constitute the only 
royalty we have in this state. Men are great, 
not on account of crowns on their heads and 
plates on their breasts, but because their heads 
are level and their hearts are right. I like 
Indiana because her people love their homeland 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPKKCH 145 

and are always ready to stand shoulder to shoulder 
in defense of that holy bond of peace and union 
— the flag of our common country. [Great ap- 
plause.] We are all citizens of the greatest re- 
public on earth, and whether by birth or adop- 
tion we are all sons of freedom. We all bow 
at the shrine of American libert}" and glory in 
our national colors. That flag has waved over 
us — our pride — our protection — our inspiration and 
our hope, since the days of Washington, and 
palsied forever be the hand that attempts to 
lessen its stripes or tear a single star from that 
field of blue, which has been baptized with 
glory and consecrated by the tears and prayers of 
patriotic Americans for half a century. [Great 
applause.] 

" 'We are proud of our railroads; of our great 
ships that bear, to and fro, the commerce of the 
world; of the telegraph which sparkles over land 
and sea, but the surest and greatest indications 
of progress are the Christian homes around whose 
hearth-stones our children gather, the thousands of 
churches pointing their steeples to the sky, and 
the school houses that dot every state in the 
Union, preparing rising generations for the com- 
ing struggle of life. [Applause.] 

*' 'And the unbounded charity of the people 
provides hospitals for the poor, and education for 
even the deaf, the dumb and the blind. With 



146 IvEGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

these institutions, these schools, these churches, 
these God-blessed country homes sending their 
benediction over our country she will never grow 
old, but eternal youth will wreath our nation's 
brow for ever more. [Great applause.] 

" 'I was born in this county, was with you in 
boyhood, am with you for life and with you 
for everything that will better our country and 
our people. I am with you to sustain our 
churches and improve our schools. I am with 
you to raise our boys and girls in decency, with 
industrious habits, liberal education and full prep- 
aration for useful and honorable lives. I am with 
you for the protection of our homes, and for 
the happiness of our sisters, our wives and our 
mothers. God bless them all — they deserve it. I 
am with you to execute the laws of our country, 
with even-handed justice to everybody alike, 
whether you vote for me or not — whether you 
agree with me in politics or not, and whether 
you are white, negro or Indian, I will treat you 
all fair, and if you do not want this done do 
not elect me. But join me for the improvement 
of our country and the betterment of our people, 
and to uphold the dignity and integrity of our 
courts, and I am with you to the last wag of 
the hammer and the last roll of the drum. 
[Long continued applause.] 

" 'It is said that Orange County is founded 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEKCH 147 

on a rock, but let me tell you that the future 
welfare of our county rests on better and 
more secure foundations, and that is the honesty, 
virtue, intelligence, industry and patriotism of 
our people. These foundations can never fail, 
but vvill remain in the hearts of our people 
when none of us are here, yes, even when our 
rock foundations have crumbled in the dust. 
[Applause.] 

'' 'Our industries are varied and important. 
We raise beef, hogs, horses, hay, wheat, corn, 
oats, butter, poultiy and .he best watermelons 
west of the Ohio River. (A colored man: — 
"now you are talking and telling de truth, too.") 

'' 'We have stone quarries innumerable and 
about a dozen grindstone and whetstone manu- 
factories. The best mineral springs on earth, and 
I hear the boys are organizing a 'cat club' 
to keep the wild cats from carrying off the 
lambs. They had better set bear traps to pre- 
vent the city dudes from carrying off our prettiest 
girls. [Laughter.] 

" 'It is no wonder the people from other states 
are flocking in here. They come to regain 
their lost health at our springs. They come to 
grow fat on our beef, and they purchase from 
us grain, stock and other products, eat our butter 
and chickens and smoke our 'nigger twist to- 
bacco.' They come to sharpen their intellect by 



148 I^EGKNDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

associating with our people and to sharpen their 
wits and their pocket knives on our whet- 
stones — why I heard, at French Lick, the other 
day, that the mosquitoes from the swamps near 
Cairo came over here to sharpen their bills on 
West Baden whetstones, so they could perforate 
the hides of those Egyptians in Southern Illinois. 
[Great laughter.] The great advantages of people 
coming here from other states are that when they 
locate here and sharpen up and become well 
informed and intelligent citizens they invariably 
vote for Jim Cummmgs of Lost River Valley. 
[Great applause.] 

" 'My opponent likes to be called Hon. William 
Prescott — no familiarity allowed. Call him Bill 
and he would have nervous prostration from shock. 

" 'I understand he said he was always very 
much embarrassed when he arises to speak, 
and I believe that is true all right, because 
when he arises to speak he looks like a two- 
year-old colt brought on the track for his first 
lesson, and has a take-me-back-quick look in his 
eye, and the quicker they take him back and 
furnish him a seat the better for him, and a 
thousand times better for the people. Did you 
ever see him "capture" a public meeting? Now 
see him mount the steps — see him stroke his weep- 
ing willow mustache — see him give a yearling-calf 
look over the audience. Now wait for something 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 149 

poetic, something profound and statesman like. 
Hush! szzz! Golly, he missed fire — a gentle mur- 
mur and he^retires. What expectation! What sur- 
prise! What nothing! As he came up the steps 
you heard that great frog in the swamp near by 
say, "Big Thing, Big Thing," as he retired, a 
katydid from a neighboring tree screeched out in 
its rasping voice, "Petered out, petered out." 
" *Now as regards myself I am not embarrassed, 
but proud and happy to have an opportunity to 
address the most honest, self-supporting and intel- 
ligent farmers in the State of Indiana. We raise 
everything we need, and are not compelled to go 
out of this county to procure the necessities or 
the luxuries of life. See our meadows and pas- 
tures stretching out before us, and miles of corn 
on every side bending in the wind like the waves 
of the sea. It makes our hearts glad and our 
homes secure. 

"Aye, the corn, the royal corn, within whose yellow heart 
there is of health and strength for all the nations." 

" 'When I travel over the country my heart 
thumps with delight to see your comfortable 
homes, your grain, stock and especially to see 
you, your wives and children so happy and pros- 
perous. They grow happier every time they re- 
collect that they were raised in Indiana. That is 
the ideal life. That is the honest life. That is 
the life that brings independence, happiness and 



150 I^KGENDS OF T,OST RIVER VATJ^EY 

content to yourself and your families. The great 
Washington spent his happiest days on his Mount 
Vernon farm. Thomas Jefferson enjoyed his last 
days in the gardens and groves at Monticello. 
Henry Clay declared his farm at Ashland the 
most pleasant spot on earth, and beneath the 
'Great Elms at Marsfield, by the Sounding Sea,' 
Daniel Webster spent his happiest days admiring 
his fat cattle in the pasture fields. And we find 
our happiness in a healthy climate, seeing our 
crops and our stock improve every hour, and our 
families intelligent, contented and prosperous — the 
most self reliant and independent people on the 
face of the earth — and I know that no one of 
you will be so thoughtless in the midst of your 
prosperity as to fail to vote for Farmer Cum- 
mings of Lost River Valley. [Applause and "We'll 
do that, Jim."] 

" 'Now, gentlemen, this business of electioneering 
is about finished and the voting will soon be fin- 
ished too, and somebody will be elected. You 
all know I was always very modest, really that 
has been the only drawback to my making a 
canvass of the county, and I do not like to speak 
right out in meeting and tell you who will be 
elected. I fear it might embarrass my opponent 
when he reaches the peroration of his last speech, 
but, gentlemen, when the votes have been counted 
and the four-horse shay passes through here car- 



JIM CUMMINGS' SPEECH 151 

rying the sheriff-elect to the county seat, you will 
see the other candidates standing at the road side, 
the dust flying over them, and away up on the 
highest seat you will see the sheriff-elect holding 
his credentials in his hand, with J, C. on his bag- 
gage, waiving "Ta, ta" to his defeated opponents 
and advising them to go home until the next elec- 
tion, and to be sure to 'keep in the middle of 
the road.'" [Great applause. J" 



152 IvKGENDS OF IvOST RIVSR VA],r,EY 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Two Girls. 

Mr. Pontus: "I heard of the experience of two 
girls who lived near here which I will give you: 

"Emil}^ and Sara loved each other more than 
sisters usually do. Their mother had died when 
they were eight and ten years old, and the 
father had transferred his love, for their lost 
mother, to her two little daughters. 

"Their childhood and girlhood days had passed 
by so quietly and sweetly that womanhood 
seemed but the flower burst of the buds whose 
beauty and strength was the love and devotion of 
childhood. 

"But innocent childhood preceded eventful lives. 
Emily, at the age of twenty, married a noble 
and provident husband. The sorrows of life were 
light to her, the frownings of fortune and pinch- 
ings of poverty formed no part of her life story. 
Leaving her father's home near Pittsburgh, she 
located beyond the mountains in the richest part 
of the Susquehanna Valley. Years and prosperity 
were yoke fellows about her magnificent home. 

"Sara remained with her father and often con- 
gratulated herself upon her circumstances and her 
prospects for the future. 

"She dreamed of the contentment and hap- 



TWO GIRI.S 153 

piness that a competence affords, and hoped that 
some day the one who would satisfy her soul 
in love and devotion would claim her, and that 
her life would be crowned with the full portion 
of usefulness and happiness usually coveted by 
good women. 

''Years now passed by, and Sara married a gen- 
tleman who was a resident of this locality. 
That such love as these sisters cherished for each 
other should be disturbed seems unnatural, but un- 
expectedly the father died, leaving Sara to settle 
the estate, and her husband was an individual 
whom Emily considered unworthy of her sister, 
and unworthy to share the patrimony of her good 
father. Her timely and sisterly remonstrances, 
given without stint, were disregarded, and the 
influence of Sara's husband did not tend to heal 
the threatening breach. 

"Sara, rich in money, rich in a husband's love, 
and richer than all in the hopes and imagery of 
the future, turned her face from the north and 
located in Lost River Valley, her husband's former 
home. 

"There, in the beautiful Southern Indiana amid 
hills and valleys, where the sun smiles so kindly, 
she soon saw shadows among the vines that 
climbed about her home — shadows that grew 
higher and wider, until her fondest hopes of 
happiness were obscured, to be seen in the sunlight 



154 tEGRNDS OF LOST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

no more. Her husband was a spendthrift and 
dishonorable, and his own and his wife^s money 
and property were soon wasted — he then grew 
desperate. 

''His remorse was too great for him; he ended 
his Hfe with morphine, and his wife, the mother of 
two daughters, was penniless; her health and heart 
were utterly broken — broken beyond hope. 

"For the first time in many years she penned a 
letter to her sister. This letter was full of sor- 
row, full of contrition, full of love and full of a 
quality of sadness that could not fall unheeded 
on a sister's heart. 

"Immediately Emily sent her son to Sara with 
this letter: 

'My Dear Sister: — 

Bring the children and come with Rob to me, 
at once. He has money to pay everything. Do 
not delay one hour. Come. 

Your loving sister, 

Emily.' 

"The anticipation of a joyous welcome awaiting 
her so far away, inspired the frail woman with 
courage and confidence to undertake the journey, 
but she gradually weakened, and, when she reached 
Alleghany City, could go no farther. Rob dis- 
patched his mother to come. That cold winter 
night Emily, with throbbing heart, passed westward 
over the Alleghany mountains through blinding 
snow storms and reached her sister's room one 



TWO GIRI.S 155 

hour before she died; their first meeting in 
sixteen ,years — their last one on earth. 

"She was buried by the side of her father in 
the family cemetery, and Emily returned home 
with Sara's two orphan girls and was a better 
mother to them than their own mother had been 
able to be. Sara's elder daughter, who is now 
wife and mother in one of the happiest homes 
in Indiana, related this story to me. Its sim- 
plicity, pathos and sadness deserve a better inter- 
preter than the one who tells it now." 



156 I^EGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI^IvEY 



CHAPTER XV. 
Jumping Glory. 

"One rainy morning Elijah Smoot, a colored 
man, came by, and as he could not work sat 
down and told the following: 

"'There lived in a pool which received its supply 
of water from the overflow of Lost River the 
biggest frog that ever hopped into the water 
since Caesar made mud pies. His home was not 
in the "Vasty Deep," but all over. The only 
one place that seemed dearer to him than all 
others was a large rock, on the edge of the 
pool, upon which he would climb and assume a 
position that showed him to be entirely content 
regardless of whether the wide world kept wag- 
ging or not. The place was love's young dream 
to him and especially so when the valley was 
tilled from bank to bank with water supplied by 
the rains gathered from the great hillsides sur- 
rounding its head. The pool covered about five 
acres of very low ground, and the water that 
poured into it during the freshets never entirely 
dried up, thus providing his "frogship" with the 
visible means of support. I alwciys was of the 
opinion that there was a quiet little spring, which 
kept the water supply sufficient to keep the pool 
fresh and full, which spring was, like Lost River, 



JUMPING GIvORY 157 

lost to everybody but his majesty, the big frog. 
Our mutual friend was the biggest, longleggedest, 
spottedest frog that was ever known. I was 
first attracted by his extraordinary jumping 
qualifications. He would sit on his much loved 
rock until he thought the appropriate time had 
arrived for an exhibition of his peculiarities when 
he would, instead of sliding off into the water, 
make one clear-cut bound that would project 
his great long form, in a rainbow circle, away 
over yonder into the deep water with one 
glorious plunge. His color was a yellow ground 
with great frog-green spots and his legs were 
striped like a clown at the circus. His size, his 
activity, his color and independent conduct, won 
for him, in the vicinity, the name of "Jumping 
Glory." The boys all said he was cross-eyed, 
because he could see their approach regardless 
of the direction, without moving his head or 
blinking an eye. While he was ''summer resort- 
ing" on that rock many a boy tried to carom a 
pebble from his slanting cranium, but before 
succeeding in doing so, Jumping Glory would 
be away, and something that looked long and slim 
as an eel, would pass away up, away over, into 
the deep water, when all sport at his expense 
was ended. Another thing: his appetite was 
always admirable, no lumbago in his back and 
his legs entirely free from rheumatism and 



158 IvEGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VAI^IvEY 

sciatica. He showed his good sense in remaining 
within touch of the medicinal springs in the 
vicinity. His voice was much admired by the 
ladies who continually went in ecstacies over the 
profundity, volume and basso qualities of his cheery 
voice. Once I heard it intimated that his musical 
education had been somewhat neglected in his 
youth, but such was not the opinion generally 
entertained by people of musical education and 
refinement; and ladies who had been abroad and 
had lessons from the great masters were unani- 
mous in the verdict that his good looks were 
exceeded only by his lovely enunciation. In the 
quiet evenings when the moon was rising out 
of the Atlantic Sea, and the great rays, like 
those of a calcium light came west in waving, 
golden beams, then Jumping Glory was on his 
rock, in dreamy blissfulness, with a wont-come-off 
smile on his face and his quiet eyes filled with 
a look that clearly said, "keep out of m}- moon- 
shine," and there he would sit enjoying inex- 
pressible happiness. He likes to hear the multi- 
tude of insects singing among the trees in the 
evening, but still if a great blue bottle fly or a 
June bug came within four or five feet of him, 
he would make one of his gigantic leaps into the 
water, and while in mid-air he would take in 
his victim and sink into the pool in the enjo}^- 
ment of both food and drink. Katvdids were 




"he would sit on his much i^oved rock' 



JUMPING GIvORY 159 

great favorites with him and I hav^e frequently 
witnessed a katydid, being snapped up in the 
midst of a stanza, and then at the same moment 
pass into the throat of the frog and into the 
water and as the frog would disappear in the 
water and before the waves would close over 
him the full, clear notes of the katydid would 
sometimes come back as the grand finale of the 
scene. I have heard that swans would sing 
when dying, but these katydids would seem to 
sing sometimes after they were forever buried 
inside of Jumping Glory. I suppose the time 
the sound required to travel had something to 
do with this. Speaking of singing reminds me 
of Jumping Glory and his great voice; it was a 
cJmr - c/iur - chting - c/iur - chur - chtmg. Sometimes the 
carcasses of horses and other animals would be 
hauled on the low grounds below the pool and in 
every instance Jumping Glory would sit, in ma- 
jestic solemnity, and chant the requiem of the dear 
departed. He seemed to have some opposition 
from the whippoorwill, who sent forth her melan- 
cholly song from the woods on the hillside, but 
still there never was an open clash between them, 
and when one of them had an attack of tonsillitis, 
or if one was absent or out of tune, the other 
one solemnly performed the duties omitted by his 
unfortunate comrade. 

" 'My house was in a pleasant grove about fif- 



160 I^EGKNDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI.I,KY 

teen rods from the frog's pet rock, and when the 
water was low there was a clean little sand bar 
in front of the rock, so that in dry weather the 
frog had to jump fully twelve feet to strike safe 
water; and doing this part of the time from nec- 
essity, he did it the remainder of the time from 
habit; but I verily think he did it from choice, 
as he liked to exhibit his expertness in this re- 
gard. One day Aunt Jemima came to visit us. 
She was the largest, fattest, blackest colored 
woman I ever saw. She weighed over three hun- 
dred pounds and was quite tall. For some time 
I contemplated making two trips to get her over 
to the house. She was very religious and said 
her prayers out loud night and morning. She had 
a strong voice, and as our house was small, she 
concluded to say her prayers on the clean sand, 
near the water, so that the Lord could hear with- 
out interference. She liked to pray in secret, but 
she could always be heard for half a mile. While 
thus engaged the frog was seated upon his rock, 
as if he was superintendent and director general 
of the performance. But just as Aunt Jemima 
came to the big words at the close, a dog came 
rushing by. She hearing the noise, rose quickly 
as she said. Amen, and the frog, scared at the 
same moment, made his jump, and coming at full 
speed, all sails set, and colors flying, hit her full 
in the face. She was not prepared for such a sur- 



JUMPING GI^ORY 161 

prise. It knocked her dizzy and helpless for a mo- 
ment, and after the dreadful compact he kept 
clawing his clammy, duck-like feet and long toe- 
nails over her face and about her neck, seeking a 
foothold for another spring. She thought the devil 
had assaulted her. She screamed and bellowed 
and rolled on the sand. I ran to her relief and 
succeeded in getting her home, with her rigging 
somewhat disordered and she in a state of gen- 
eral collapse. She left the next morning for home 
and never in her life would she come again. 
When I suggested that it must have been a bat, 
she said: "You're craz3% boy, it was as big as 
your dog, and it tore me with great sharp claw^s, 
and I know it was the devil who tried to kill me 
because I prayed. No, sonny, don't try to fool 
me, I know what it was, I can feel his damp, 
clammy feet and claws yet." I thought that frog 
could bellow, and that my engine could blow, but 
the soul-stirring, heart-rending, long-distance screech 
that went out on the evening air when the devil 
struck Aunt Jemima will never be forgotten. It 
seemed to me that a fog-horn, a locomotive whis- 
tle, and a twelve-pound cannon had formed a trust 
to blow the inhabitants out of Lost River Valley. 
" 'I worked on a railroad and was fireman on 
the locomotive. We had a very strong headlight 
that would throw a light a mile ahead on the 
track. I had this light at home, to put it in order, 



162 I.EGENDS OF IvOST RIVER VALLEY 

and a colored boy who worked with me, whom 
we called "Craps." One night we had about a 
dozen colored women, at a Quilting Bee in the 
afternoon, and they all remained to spend the 
evening. Knowing this, "Craps" and I got four 
sheets and sewed them together so as to make 
one great sheet. We fixed this on trees near the 
rocks with small ropes so we could raise it 
when desired, then "Craps" took the headHght 
and placed it so that the top of the rock was in 
direct line between the light and the canvas when 
raised. We thought it would work, as we knew 
Jumping Glory always selected the hightest point 
of the rock for his resting place, so he could see 
in case of danger, and so he could spring with- 
out obstructions. 

" 'When dinner was over I sent "Craps" down to 
raise the canvas and turn on the light with great 
care. As the light slowly increased I could see 
the canvas distinctly, and there in the center 
was the frog in all his glory; the light be- 
ing near the frog, it made a shadow ten feet 
long on the canvas. I said, "Well, what is 
that?" Everybody came to the front porch and 
there was a frog, as big as a street car, spread 
out before the wondering visitors, and what ad- 
ded to the interest of the spectacle more than 
anything else was that the frog was wondering 
too. He would turn his head to one side and 



JUMPING GI^ORY 1^3 

then to the other and wink his great crazy 
eyes, and once held up his front foot, showing 
his great fingers and claws which made it very 
thrilling. Some one said let us all go and see 
what it can be. I solemnly told them that they 
could go if they wished to take the risk, but 
that I would stay there. They did not go. 
The light slowly disappeared; the sheet was 
taken home and it has never been known how the 
dreadful scene in the swamp occurred, and with 
people, naturally superstitious, it created a great 
sensation, with Jumping Glory as the star actor. 

" 'I gradually became a great friend of that frog. 
I knew that his immense propellers would make a 
meal for two at any time, and I have had many 
a hearty meal of fried frog legs, from that pool, 
but nothing could induce me to harm Jumping 
Glory. There never was a rain indicator more 
reliable than he. When a rain storm was ap- 
proaching he would hop about everywhere. He 
would jump three feet farther from his rock. He 
was so delighted that he would have an immense 
pool to play in, and that the freshet of waters 
would bring him various kinds of fresh food. He 
was always happy and lively before a rain fall. 
If he prayed at all it was to the god of storms. 
After dinner I would Hght my corn-cob pipe, sit 
on the front porch, and as the smoke curled 
about my head I would turn my eyes to the 



164 I^KGENDS OF I^OST RIVER VAl,IvEY 

frog-rock and observe the conduct of its monarch 
which was always interesting to me and also in- 
dicative of the coming weather, — and as darkness 
gathered about him he would favor us with croak- 
ing that seemed to make the leaves quiver and 
the insect life hush its infantile clatter and start 
the night-long frog chorus of mid-summer even- 
ings. He was great in all respects; great in his 
size; great in his leg power; great in his leaping 
abilities; great in his wisdom; great as a weather 
indicator; great in his croaking power; great in his 
beauty and variegated color; great in his independ- 
ence; great in his vested rights in that rock and 
pool; great because no other frog dared to dis- 
pute his right. He selected his own banquet hall, 
his own swimming pool, his own mode of life, 
and seemed to be supremely happy even when left 
alone in his glor3\ 

" 'He was so unusually great, in so many 
respects, that he never can be excelled. Talk of 
the frogs brought up b}' Moses, by stretching 
his rod over the waters of Egypt; talk of the 
frogs brought forth by the magicians, with their 
enchantments which brought anguish of spirit and 
harrowed up the soul of Pharoah and his people; 
talk of the frog-like animal that appeared in the 
carboniferous period and disported on the muddy 
shores and swamps, and croaked in the ancient 
marshes of remote geological ages; talk of the 



JUMPING GI^ORY 165 

frogs from the Mississippi bayous who put the 
waters in a quiver with their thundering bass 
solos; talk of the cross-eyed tree frogs that 
chirrup their gingery serenade from the fruit trees 
you have planted with your own hands; talk of 
the frogs fattening in the preserves of Vienna 
to tickle the palates of the epicures of the Wiener 
Wald; talk of the hog-like grunting frogs of 
the West Indies and the horned-frog of Texas; 
talk of the product of the "frogeries" of France 
and England where stall-feeding makes them abnor- 
mally great; talk of the frogs rendered immortal 
by Aristophanes, in his Comedy of Frogs; but never 
in your life, for a single moment, imagine that 
you can ever beat the great Jumping Glory of 
Lost River Valley.' " 



166 I^KGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI,I,KY 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Mr. Benton: "I suppose you read the Bible a 
great deal. Suppose you tell us a Bible story. 

Mr. Pontus: "Well, if you wish I will tell 
you of 

"Rebekah at the Well. 

<'About eighteen hundred and fifty years before 
the Christian era, Isaac was traveling with his 
camels and other property through the land of 
Mesopotania, which country was warm and the 
water very scarce. The old trusted man of the 
family had charge of the caravan, and when he 
came to a well he made the camels kneel so 
that they could rest and get water and locate 
comfortably for the night. In that country the 
young women were accustomed to carry water 
from the wells in pitchers upon their shoulders. 
While the servant and agent of Isaac was near 
the well, Rebekah came out, with her pitcher 
upon her shoulder and 'the damsel was very 
fair to look upon' and she went down to the 
well and filled her pitcher and came up with her 
pitcher upon her shoulder, and the trusted agent 
of Isaac ran to meet her and requested a drink 
of water and she, without hesitation, let down 
the pitcher and held it upon her hand and he 
drank of the water, and Rebekah then assisted 



REBKKAH AT THE WEI.I* 167 

him in getting water for the camels and rendered 
him such assistance and gave such information 
as he desired. 

"After this meeting at the well a conversation 
followed and the damsel then went home and 
told her mother all that happened and her 
brother was sent out to see the man at the 
well — who was still with the camels. The 
brother invited the man to the house and cared 
for the camels and provided for the men in 
charge of the caravan. It was the custom in 
those early years for the older men of the family 
to arrange with the wife, or with her family 
for her, and this trusted man of Isaac, had, 
before Isaac's time, been the adviser of Abra- 
ham, Isaac's father, and had watched over Isaac 
in his earlier years, and Abraham had charged 
him to seek for Isaac a wife from Abraham's 
own tribe and kindred and charged him that, 
'Thou shalt not take a wife to my son of the 
daughters of the Canaanites in whose land I dwell,' 
and it was ascertained that night that Rebekah 
was not a Canaanite but was a descendant of 
the same family and was a distant relative of 
Isaac — perhaps a second cousin. 

"The next morning it was arranged with the 
brother and the mother that the daughter should 
go and be the wife of Isaac, provided the 
daughter was agreeable to the arrangement — so 



168 r^EGENDS OF --IvOST RIVER VAI^T^EY 

they called the daughter and consulted her and 
asked her if she would consent to go to be 
Isaac's wife and she answered, 'I will go,' and 
they gave Rebekah bracelets, earrings and other 
jewelry. And then Rebekah and her nurse, 
and her damsels left home and rode on camels 
to meet Isaac. And in the eventide Isaac went 
out into the field to meditate, and while so en- 
gaged he lifted up his eyes 'and behold the 
camels were coming.' And as they came nearer 
Rebekah saw a man in the field and upon in- 
quiry was informed that it was Isaac. She then 
dismounted from the camel, put a veil over her 
and met Isaac in the field, and after explanations 
and mutual understandings, Isaac took Rebekah to 
his mother's tent 'and she became his wife.' 

"From that time to the present, girls and bo3's 
have met at the well or at the springs, as we 
now have it. The happiest moments of many 
of their young lives has been on the pathway to 
the spring underneath the clinging vines, and thus 
wells and springs and girls and weddings have 
been associated together from time immemorial 
and will be for all time to come." 



orange: county and its peopi<e 169 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Orange County and Its People. 

<'The entire eastern portion of the county is 
alternately rolling and level or gently undulating 
and is generally productive farming lands. Stone 
crops out here and there showing it to be plen- 
tiful. This is true of almost every portion of the 
county. Orange Count}^ is founded on a rock, 
or more correctly, on a great many rocks. As 
you go south the great hills claim your attention. 
Originall}^ the ground within this county was 
generally covered with forests, thick and um- 
brageous. The hills about French Lick and 
West Baden assume the mountainous character. 
For many years it has been a pleasant pastime 
for me to climb these hills on a clear morning 
and spend a day among them in the wild woods, 
enjo3nng the open air and magnificent views and 
breathing the vigor and strength gathered from 
the glorious atmosphere. 

"The forests are dense and look black in the 
distance, especiall}^ on the great hill-sides. Here 
and there in these forests you see great white 
birch trees stretching their long trunks away up 
and so smooth and white, as 3^ou gaze from the 
distant hill, that they appear like ghosts in the 
woods. When you stand on a high hill and look 



170 I^EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

over the hills and valleys those forests, close to 
you may appear green, but the next bench of 
hills will look black; and those still further away 
will appear blue and those far out on the ex- 
treme limit of vision, appear almost azure blue 
as they loom up banked against the distant sky. 

"The inhabitants of this county are a plain, 
industrious, honest, hardworking people; in business 
no people are more honest; in times of war no 
county can be relied on to furnish soldiers with 
less urging than Orange County. 

"One of our old judges was asked one day 
what was the greatest product upon which the 
people of Orange County depended for their 
support and he said ^pensions!' That so many 
good men had gone to war and were killed or 
disabled that it resulted in a great many pensions 
being paid by the government to the families of 
dead soldiers and to the crippled soldiers who 
still survive. From this state of affairs a royal 
compliment to the loyalty, bravery and patriotism 
of our people arises unbidden, challenging our 
attention and consideration. It shows that these 
hills and valleys rear loyal, brave men. It shows 
that stalwart, loyal men are the natural product 
of a country inhabited by a plain people who 
own their own homes, do their own work and 
'greatly independent live.' It shows that boys 
and girls who take care of their business and 



ORANGE COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE 171 

take care of their parents and their homes are 
more reliable than any others. It shows that 
boys who plow and sow and cradle and mow, 
who attend school, read much and learn to hunt 
and shoot are the best timber on American soil, 
out of which to make courageous, loyal, efficient 
soldiers. I can tell you points by which you can 
test a boy and if he stands the test you can 
rely on him. 

"Does he work faithfully at some honorable 
employment? Does he depend on himself to 
make a livelihood? 

"Does he try to improve his mind? Is he 
temperate? Does he assist his parents and his 
sisters? If so, you can rely upon him for life. 
Boys generally, who are raised in the city and 
are burdened with city ways, will not compare 
w^ith the plow-boy for those sterner qualities that 
go to make up a useful and reliable man. The 
chances are greatly in favor of an honest, hard 
working country lad who lives at home and pro- 
vides for and helps his mother and is happy 
making life pleasant for his sisters. This fact 
is so well established and so well understood that 
the fathers and mothers throughout the county 
act on it in the great emergencies and the graver 
matters of life. 

"This truth was illustrated by an incident 
which occurred in our neighborhood. Mrs. Davis 



172 I.EGENDS OF LOST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

had a lovely daughter, Florence, to whom John 
Banks had been devoted in his attentions for a 
whole year. The mother called the young man 
into the parlor to have a talk with him, she said, 
'You have been paying attention to my daughter 
for over a year and I want to know if you are 
serious in your intentions and do you expect or 
intend to marry her or what do you desire and 
expect to do?' John said, 'I am ready any minute 
to marry Florence, but I have an old mother 
and a sister at home. 1 get but sixty dollars a 
month, and I always send thirty dollars every 
month to my mother and I fear that I cannot 
support a wife and myself on thirty dollars a 
month. I want to marry Florence, but how can 
I take proper care of her? I love your daughter 
very much. I should long ago have asked your 
consent to our marriage, but I fear that I could 
not take good care of her on my present salary, 
but I have saved up two hundred dollars, and just 
as soon as I have something more ahead I will 
marry her if she is then ready and willing to be 
my wife.' Mrs. Davis looked at John a moment 
and said, 'John, I did you injustice. Any boy 
who will take care of his mother and sister, will 
take care of his wife. I consent to your mar- 
riage to my daughter, and I will help you and 
her — God bless you, my boy.' " 



THE PAST. THE FUTURE 173 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Past. The Future. 

"This is the forest primeval; but where are the hearts 

that beneath it 
Leaped like the roe, when he hears in the woodland the 
voice of the huntsman?" 

<'When I look back over the years that have 
passed over my head, I can, in the darkest night, 
in my imagination, see the old scenes arise be- 
fore me. I can see the wooded hills stretching 
to the limit of my vision. They rose against the 
sky like a barrier. I loved those great forests. I 
would look over them and my heart throbbed 
with delight when I could, on a clear morning, 
go into those dark forests to return home onl}- as 
the shades of night gathered about me. 

''Those hills have been shorn of their foliage- 
crowned covering. They never were what would 
be considered wild and picturesquely thrilling, but 
a far reaching, refreshing and magnificent beauty 
that rests the eye and awakens thoughts and ideals 
of the beautiful and the grand. 

"I can imagine those hills now as they used to 
be when I loved them so. The distant tops of 
those great hills formed the bound of my infant 
world, the horizon of my youthful gaze. The 
days one after another passed over them and re- 
turned no more forever. Thev hemmed in the 



174 I^EGKNDS OF I,OST RIVER VAI,I,EY 

river, the Valley, my people and my hunting 
grounds, and they were my world, my home and 
my delight. 

"Although the Indian tribes were scattered from 
the pictured rocks of Lake Superior to the palm- 
covered river banks of Florida, yet before the 
advance of the white man, they faded away like 
the stars when the gray light of morning climbs 
the eastern sk}^ The coming in of the white man 
and the going out of the Indians, so gradually but 
certainly done, awaked the most intense sadness 
in mv heart. See the beautiful woods, the vil- 
lages of Indian tents stretched along, among the 
shade trees. Men busy with their work or the 
chase and the dogs whining to be liberated to 
enter the timber where all was skill, care and 
manoeuver. The Indian women and children were 
happy at home. Yes, a nation of happy, healthy 
people, but living with the mutterings of the dis- 
tant storm growing more distinct and the dread- 
ful threatening that the very existence of the 
Indian would no longer be tolerated and that the 
race would be blotted from the face of the earth, 
becoming more apparent and more certain. The 
braves gathered near here and went forth to 
make the final struggle for their hunting grounds, 
for their homes, their wigwams, their wives and 
children and to protect their scanty property, be- 
ing all they possessed on earth. The music of 



THE PAST. THE FUTURE 175 

the fife and drum, so inspiring to the conqueror, 
spoke a savage terror to the hearts of my peo- 
ple, and much as I love my country, its flag, its 
music and its people, the sound of fife and drum 
ever vividly recalls that dreadful scene with its un- 
measured and undying sadness. 

"Lo! I hear the beaten drums — their long- roll 
Affrig^hts the quiet of the peaceful air, 

And startles quick memories in my soul 

Of those who were young and brave and fair." 

Reminiscent. 
"The god of war frowned on our braves when 
they went out to battle. They were slain. 
The defense, the pride and hope of our tribe, lay 
still in death on the bloody battle-ground. The 
race was undone. The valleys, the hills, the 
rivers, the homes so dear to a bereaved and 
broken-hearted people, were left behind, and they 
slowly, solemnly and bravely moved away, and all 
ihat was dear to them on earth was taken from 
them forever. Ah, my friends, who can measure 
the depth of their sadness? Who but those men 
and women can know the intensity of the grief 
that filled their bursting hearts! The sun rose to 
look upon a people bowed down. The nation 
was in tears. Tell me, I pray of you, what rights 
were allowed them? Tell me how a just God 
could treat his children so? Tell me, by what 
principles of Christianity and of the gospel were 



176 LEGENDS OF LOST RIVER VALLEY 

my people driven away? Were the white men 
generous and noble to a people who were un- 
able to defend themselves? Did you do to others 
as you would that others should do to you? My 
friends! Yes, truly, my friends, tell me why did 
you treat my people so? (Here Uncle Joe bowed 
his head upon his hands and great tears fell down; 
he then continued.) Pictures make a deep im- 
pression upon me. I can remember the details 
of striking paintings most distinctly, but never 
was there a picture so sad to me as the departure 
of the Shawnees. The image of that scene is 
still pictured before my vision. My mind is old 
and impressions are gradually fading from the 
tablet of my memory and passing into oblivion, 
but, my friends, how distinct on my wrinkled 
vision and how sad to my trembling heart was 
that final departure of my people from this valley, 
so dear to their fathers, so dear to them all. 
Surely 'God moves in a mysterious way.' 

"When 1 see the great seal of the State of 
Indiana with the buffalo fleeing westward, and the 
white man chopping down the trees, how well 
do I understand what that means. The artist 
who made that seal must have known the historical 
truth. He must have witnessed those vivid scenes. 
But why did he not complete the picture by show- 
ing an Indian mother leaving her home with 
her helpless child in her arms, her heart full of 



THK PAST. THE FUTURE 177 

sorrow and her eyes full of tears? But the 
struggle was over. The victory over my despised 
people was complete. Their presence no longer 
provoked trouble nor invited suffering. 

"When these wars — these thunder-storms of the 
ages — had ended all contentions and dispelled all 
enmities, a wonderful peace rested upon the 
land and a more wonderful prosperity blessed the 
American people. The white man came, and 
instead of continuing his cruelty and injustice he 
'had taken off his horns,' he had hung his gun 
on the wall. He, his mother and his wife were 
full of tenderness and were no longer enemies. 
He ceased warfare. He built houses, chopped 
down the beautiful groves, raised corn and other 
grain, raised stock, plowed the ground, and the 
women came with their children, and comfortable 
homes soon were seen everywhere. The early 
settlers were a good people. Good soldiers make 
good citizens, and the tenderness and care given 
to the little ones by their mothers always proved 
their goodness, their intelligence and the Christian 
devotion of true women. I continually watched 
the love and care given the little ones, and the 
benefit of being raised in a house with such 
mothers. 

"The argument and the conclusions arising from 
these scenes were irresistible to my mind. I 
prayed the Great Spirit to strengthen me. I 



178 I.EGKNDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

struggled to rift the clouds of sadness that bore 
me down and to break away the grief that 
had broken my heart a thousand times. With 
a determination as strong as death I arose from 
my bended knees to welcome the coming day. 
Now I know it, I am sure of it, that the 
Christian home under the care of a devoted 
wife and mother is the most elevating institu- 
tion on earth. It is the greatest influence that 
blesses the lives of the young and prepares 
them for usefulness. Then the schools and the 
churches soften, elevate and strengthen the 
rugged natures of men — breathe into them the 
inclination to intelligent thought and makes them 
mentally strong and practical. Now I can see 
that the Indian is not raised properly. How I love 
to see the boys play ball and other games, but 
indolence and playfulness for grown men is very 
bad in its results, and I continually desire that 
the Indians could have had, and their descend- 
ants even now might have, the advantages and 
preparation for life that the youth of white 
families enjoy. 

"I see pleasant homes, great fields of grain, 
factories, shops, schools, churches, and sociability 
about me. I see industry, labor, production of 
commerce, education, intelligence, and all that goes 
to make a people intellectual, useful, independent, 
prosperous and happy. 



THE PAST. THE FUTURE 179 

''These are the considerations that caused me to 
stay with the white people, and I have during my 
whole life, after the years of boyhood, welcomed 
every influence that made me one of the white 
people. They have ever been good to me, and I 
pray God to bless them for their universal kind- 
ness, unworthy as I am. 

"The fact that there is an overruling govern- 
ment, the fact that that government is sovereign 
and powerful, that it protects its children, that it is 
operated for the benefit of its people, that it is 
operated so as to educate the young and furnish 
homes and employment for everybody, makes it 
respected, makes it strong, makes it what it ought 
to be — the protector^ the guide, the safeguard and 
friend of the people. Why should we not love 
the government, defend the government, stand by 
its flag.^ It is now the protection, the pride, the 
safet}^ the hope of all of the people — even if some 
of them are of Indian blood. 

"At times storms and darkness seem to blot out 
the very sky that bends over us, but when the 
storms have passed away the old eternal blue 
again appears in all its purity and grandeur; 
thus tempests, dangers and wars have threat- 
ened to tear down the flag of our nation, yet 
when the waves of time and war and death have 
passed, that emblem of national freedom still waves 
over us, rendered dearer, stronger and more en- 
during by its trials and dangers. 



180 I^EGENDS OF lyOST RIVER VAI.I,EY 

♦<This country is naturally great. Its extent is 
so far-reaching and the ground so rich, both above 
and below the surface, that a reasonable estimate 
of its worth is impossible beyond all controversy. 
If we consider the geography of our country we 
have a field before us calling for calculation, con- 
sideration and reflection. Hills, valleys, mountains, 
meadow land, lakes, springs, brooks and rivers 
pass before us in a wide-spreading and changeable 
panoramic scene sufficient to awe well balanced 
minds, and even strike them dumb with admira- 
tion and astonishment. Rocks on the mountains 
for the masons and builders; black loam in the 
low-lands which grow the greatest crops on earth; 
timber everywhere for uses that are so varied as 
to baffle the most scholarly estimation; gravel 
banks for foundations and roadbeds; clay for 
brick, tile-work and crockery; coal in unlimited 
varieties for fuel, and water-powers that will 
cause the experts of the world to stand in si- 
lence and wonder until exhausted, and then to 
gaze and wonder still. When centuries have 
passed the wonder will still be increasing. 

"The timber of our country has been, and will 
be, an unending source of profit both in the 
shape of lumber and for ten thousand uses in im- 
plements, machinery and in the planing mills and 
manufactories throughout the country. The varieties 
and kinds of trees grown in certain localities, and 



THE PAST. THE FUTURE 181 

SO many of them being indigenous only to those 
localities, and taken altogether constitutes a most 
complete and most useful supply for the use of the 
whole country. 

"In some portions of tlie south the magnolia 
grows in such profusion and of such prodigious 
size as to form great forests, scenting the air in 
the spring-time with their odor for long distances. 
In the north there are hardier trees which are 
utterly unknown in the south. The same is true 
with the east and west as is evident by the um- 
brageous elms which beautify and protect the shore 
of the sounding sea on the east, and the redwood 
trees in the valleys near the Golden Gate, which 
are sometimes found nearl}^ one hundred feet in 
circumference at the ground and reach the sur- 
prising height two hundred feet. Where else 
can such a variety of timber be found; where 
can it be utilized in so many ways, and where 
is there a people on the face of the earth who 
are so quick and so ready to appreciate the great 
variety of the uses for which it is suitable? 

The Soil. 

"The soil of our country is unique in this, 
that it grows one vegetable in the south, another 
in the north, and so with the east and west, and 
yet taking altogether the all-around products raised 
in the entire countr}^ bafflles all calculation. 



182 IvEGENDS OF I^OST RIVER VAI^IyEY 

"The great cotton belt produces cotton, corn, 
rice, sweet potatoes, small grains and vegetables. 
The east comes forward with its exhibit of ap- 
ples, farming products and fruits and garden pro- 
duce generally. The north boasts of its great 
wheat and corn fields, surpassing any nation on 
the face of the globe in the aggregate production 
of grain, corn and other products, and when we 
turn to California the products of the soil, includ- 
ing fruits, flowers and garden products, are so 
great in size and quantity, that stating the naked 
truth about them sounds like a fairy tale, stag- 
gering the credulity of mankind. But let us con- 
sider the central portion of our nation — and that 
means the center of the producing world — the 
Mississippi valley. It is located midway between 
the great oceans washing the eastern and western 
shores of the continent, midway between the Al- 
leghany and the Rocky mountains, midway be- 
tween the great chain of crystal lakes on the 
north and the great warm tempestuous gulf on 
the south, midway between the great commercial 
interests of our country, and midway between the 
various settlements and masses of our great, grow- 
ing, homogenous population. The great Ruling 
Spirit of the universe arranged all this. He 
planted the hills, the great waters on the south, 
the lakes on the north, the mountains pregnant 
with coal on the east and the eternal masonry of 



THK PAST. THE FUTURE 183 

the Rockies on the west. He stretched out be- 
fore us the rich and far-reaching prairies of this 
section, which surpass even the historic plains of 
the Nile in extent and productiveness. He scat- 
tered the farmers over this western country almost 
as thick as the snowflakes of our winter storms. 

"And to complete the richness and utility of 
this section, and making it the crowning and 
paramount field of productiveness and industry, 
He located the father of waters in the center of 
that great valley. 

"This river is the unfailing source of water for 
all — the great avenue of commerce for the west- 
ern world, the commercial link between the north- 
west and the southland and the Southern Sea. 
Its tributaries ramify the country with navigable 
streams, thus bringing the busy west in touch 
with the restless sea, making it the shipping way 
for the farm and factory products of the west, 
and an untold blessing to a great producing 
people. 

"Where under the blue canopy that bends over 
us can we find such richness of soil, so many 
acres of unusual productiveness, such facilities and 
conveniences for business, such stimulating encour- 
agement for a vigorous and enterprising people? 
How rich the promise of future greatness, how 
strong the hope of future prosperity. How great 
the encouragement to a peculiarly favored people. 



184 IvEGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

It is not surprising that men are quick to ralty 
in defense of such a country. It is not surprising 
that soldiers will be loyal to the national govern- 
ment. May God save the commonwealth of In- 
diana; protect our nation and its liberties; bless 
our people, not forgetting the women and children 
of our homes and firesides. 

"It is the early impressions of home and school 
that survive the struggles of time and years, and 
the early teachings that abide forever; thus when 
men and women leave their homes in Indiana and 
locate in the distant west they still use the same 
words, cling to the same habits, say the same 
prayers and sing the songs of their native hills, 
and these words, habits and songs cling to them, 
regardless of distance in miles and years, and 
pass from one generation to another. Thus we 
find that the cradle songs that the mother taught 
her babes in the Valley of Lost River, in the 
Valley of the White, the Wabash and the Ohio 
Rivers forty years ago, are now being sung by 
the young mother to her babes beside the west- 
ern rivers, in the shades of the Rockies and in 
prairie homes of the far Northw^est. The hymns 
sung by parents on the banks of their native rivers 
half of a century ago are now being chanted un- 
der the shadow of the pictured rocks of Lake 
Superior and swell the song echoes among the 
cliffs of the distant Oregon; thus the virtues and 



THE PAST. THF, FUTURE 185 

teachings of parents and teachers are recorded, 
not on printed pages, but on the hearts of loving 
children, from one generation to another, and will 
live on and on and on. Can such goodness die? 
Nay, such monuments will live in beauty and in 
glory when marble shafts have crumbled in the 
dust. 

"We live in an age of progress; an age when 
human progress is making unheard of strides 
over the entire world, and especially in our 
country, and, considering the achievements of the 
past fifty years, what kind of a story will be 
told fifty years hence? I am thoroughly con- 
vinced that the next fifty years will see many 
new inventions and improvements more wonderful 
and astounding than any of the past. It would 
not be surprising if some of us would live to 
see the storms of the mountains, the air of the 
heavens and the wind and waves of the ever 
restless sea being harnessed as motive power. 

"Let us be thankful that we have lived in an 
age affording such unparalleled opportunities; let 
us thank God that we have lived in an age 
in which such gigantic strides have been made 
in all the departments of human progress; let 
us thank Him that the National Union, the 
Union of the school boy of fifty years ago, 
the Union of Washington and of Webster, still 
remains 'one and inseparable'; let us thank God 



186 I.EGENDS OF I.OST RIVER VAI.I.EY 

that we, our children, and our grand-children at 
our knees, are permitted to live under the pro- 
tecting folds of that stalwart emblem of assured 
national unity — the American Flag — the proudest, 
freest, purest flag that ever floated on the bosom 
of the morning air." 

Mr. Benton: "Now, Mr. Pontus, we are sorry 
to tell you that we are going to leave to-day 
and will not be able at this time to call again, 
but we all promise you that we will take great 
pleasure in coming to see you when we come 
again to the Springs. 

"We have enjoyed our conversations with you 
much more than I can find fitting words to 
express. We have learned many things from you 
that no one else could have told us. We admire 
you because you were wise to appreciate the 
advantages of education and the society of 
white people; because you were loyal to the 
government and have appreciated its advantages; 
because your loyalty and love for your state and 
its people has been most thorough and unwavering 
during all these years. We have all been pleased 
at the great love you have shown for the memory 
of your mother. We hope that you may be well 
and prosper until we come again, when we shall 
not fail to see you." 

To this Mr. Pontus replied: "Gentlemen, I 
regret exceedingly to have you go, as I have 



THK PAST. THE FUTURE. 187 

enjoyed your visits very much. Our conversa- 
tions gave me an opportunity of thinking over 
the past. 

"They have recalled to my mind many things 
and many persons that I perhaps would never 
again have remembered had you not called. 
I am going to the reservation to visit my mother's 
people and will stay a month or two and will 
stop with the Chief, as I will be very welcome 
there. This porch and this beech tree will stay 
here, and when you come again 1 sincerely hope 
that I may meet all of you again. I hope you 
may all be well and prosper. God bless you, 
gentlemen. Good-by." 



Added by Mr. Benton: "Two years later I 
came again to the Springs and asked for 
'Uncle Joe.' I learned that shortly after our 
last visit he left this valley to visit the Shaw- 
nees and his relatives among them; that he 
spent a month with the chief of the tribe, visiting 
among the people; that the water of the Sciota 
valley did not suit him, resulting in his sickness, 
and, although they called the most skilful physi- 
cians in the country, Mr. Pontus grew worse 
and died, and that his friends there buried 
him in their cemetery among the graves of his 
relatives. So that I never saw him again, and 
I feel sad now because his body was not brought 
back and buried beside the grave of his mother, 
I know it was his wish to sleep beside her in 
this valley, in this state and among the people 
he had learned to love with a loyalty and faith- 
fulness that was sincere and unwavering to the 
latest moments of his life." 



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